+4«««4*«««««*«4+«*««0«e444044«#«««S 


HISTORY,    PROPHECY 


THE    MOXUMEXTS 


'*&&& 


HISTORY,    PROPHECY 


AND 


THE   MONUMENTS 


ISRAEL  AND   THE  NATIONS 


BY 


JAMES  FREDERICK  McCURDY,  Ph.D.,  LL.D. 

PROFESSOR    OF   ORIENTAL    LANGUAGES   IN 
UNIVERSITY    COLLEGE,    TORONTO 


VOLUME   III 

COMPLETING   THE   WORK 


Nefo  gork 
THE   MACMILLAN   COMPANY 

LONDON:  MACMILLAN  .&  CO.,  Ltd. 
1906 


Alt  rights  ri'serned 


Copyright,  1901, 
By  THE  MACMILI.AX   COMPANY. 

Set  up  and  electrotyped.     Published  March,  1901. 
Reprinted  July,  1906. 


£ 


XorrjjooB  IPrcsa 

J.  S.  Cnshing  &  Co.  —  Berwick  &  Smith  Co. 

Norwood,  .Mass.,  D.S.A. 


TO 
DAVID  BENTON   JONES 

AND 

THOMAS    DAVIES    JONES 

I  N      R  E  M  E  M  B  R  A  N  CE      OF 

PRINCETON,  1872-1876 

AND    BEYOND 


PREFACE  TO  VOLUME  THREE 

It  is  now  over  four  years  since  the  publication  of  the 
second  instalment  of  the  present  work.  The  completion  of 
my  task  has  been  retarded  by  many  interruptions,  of  which 
the  most  serious  came  from  the  necessity  laid  upon  me 
of  preparing  a  somewhat  lengthy  biography  of  a  deceased 
friend.  Of  the  scope  and  subject-matter  of  this  volume 
little  needs  to  be  said.  The  importance  attached  to  the 
Hebrew  prophecy  of  the  period  is  justified  when  one 
considers  how  greatly  the  inner  as  well  as  the  outer 
life  of  Israel  was  affected  by  other  nations  and  peoples. 
Moreover,  the  essential  character  of  prophecy  is  still  mis- 
understood by  most  educated  people,  and  in  the  popular 
exposition  of  the  prophets  little  attention  is  paid  to  the 
permanent  and  essential  elements  of  their  unique  dis- 
courses. The  best  way  to  begin  the  study  of  the  prophets 
is  to  learn  how  their  word  and  work  are  interwoven  with 
the  life  and  history  of  their  times.  I  have  also  made 
an  attempt  to  connect  the  non-prophetic  and  indirectly 
prophetic  literature  of  Israel  witli  its  historical  occasions 
or  antecedents,  though  in  this  region  of  inquiry  we  tread 
upon  much  more  uncertain  ground. 

I  have  again  to  express  my  gratitude  lor  the  kindness 
with  which  the  two  earlier  volumes  have  been  everywhere 
received.      For  several  corrections   in   matters  of  fact  and 

of  opinion  I  have  to  thank  those  eminent  specialists  who 


PREFACE 


have  honoured  the  work  with  their  notice.  Of  non- 
specialist  critics  a  very  few  have  been  unfair;  and  two 
of  these,  in  spite  of  the  warning  of  my  first  preface,  have 
indulged  in  anonymous  scurrility.  These,  however,  were 
writers  for  the  London  Saturday  Review  and  the  Edin- 
burgh Scotsman. 

The  volume  closes  with  the  end  of  the  Babylonian  exile. 
and  thus  rounds  out  the  period  during  which  the  con- 
temporary monuments  illustrate  the  history  and  prophecy 
of  Israel.  This  epoch  is  also  a  turning-point  in  the  career 
of  the  Hebrew  people,  so  that  the  subsequent  times  must 
be  treated  from  a  different  point  of  view. 


J.  FREDERICK  McCURDY. 


Toronto, 
November  24,  1900. 


CONTENTS   OF   VOL.   Ill 
Book  IX 

HEBREWS  AND   EGYPTIANS 

CHAPTER   I 

The  Kingdom  of  Jcdah  under  Josiah.     §  835-841.     P.  1-5 

§  835.  Special  place  of  Israel  in  the  closing  Assyrian  period  —  §  836.  Re- 
lations with  the  Eastern  powers  —  §  837.  The  forward  outlook  and  the 
part  played  by  Egypt  —  §  838.  Effect  of  international  relations  on  the 
inner  life  of  the  people  —  §  839.  Political  relations  of  Judah  at  the  acces- 
sion of  Josiah  —  §  840.  Prophetic  policy  of  acquiescence  in  Assyrian  rule 
—  §  841.  Religious  reform  favoured  by  freedom  from  Assyrian  influence 

CHAPTER   II 

The  Great  Reformation.     §  842-8G4.     P.  6-18 

§  842.  The  reform  of  Josiah  in  spirit  and  purpose  —  §  843.  Its  chief 
leaders  —  §  844.  Little  told  us  of  antecedent  movements  or  of  popular 
feeling  —  §  845.  How  the  party  of  reform  regained  power — §  846.  The 
finding  of  the  "book  of  direction"  —  §  847.  What  this  book  was,  and 
how  it  was  found  —  §  848.  Its  probable  history  —  §  849.  The  mandate  of 
the  book  and  its  effect  on  Josiah  —  §  850.  A  commission  of  inquiry  — 
§  851.  Resort  to  a  prophetess  —  §  852.  A  convocation  and  covenant  — 
§  853.  Specific  objects  of  the  reform  —  §  854.  Unspiritual  worship  of 
Jehovah  —  §  855.  Worship  of  old  Canaanitic  deities  —  §  856.  Assyrian 
(Babylonian)  cults  —  §  857.  Immoralities  fostered  by  impure  religions  — 
§  858.  Popular  superstitions  ;  divination  supplanted  by  the  word  of 
prophecy  —  §  859.  A  reformation  of  morals  involved  in  that  of  religion  — 
§  860.  Abolition  of  local  shrines,  and  its  motive  —  §  861.  The  centraliza- 
tion of  worship  in  Jerusalem  —  §862.  Transference  and  transformation 
of  the  feasts  —  §  §63.  Levitical  priests  —  §  864.  Widening  out  of  our 
inquiry 

ix 


C<  >XTEXTS 


CHAPTER   III 

Deuteronomy  and  Hebrew  Literature.     §  86-J-94-3.     P.  19-80 

§  865.  Importance  of  Deuteronomy  in  the  literature  of  Israel  — 
§  866.  Vantage-ground  for  a  survey  of  earlier  literary  history  — 
§  867.  Salient  points  of  literary  progress  —  §  868.  Difficulties  of  tracing 
the  history  of  Hebrew  literature  —  §  869.  Principles  and  facts  to  be 
kept  in  view  —  §  870.  Characteristics  of  Old  Testament  composition  — 
§  871.  Conditions  of  its  rise  and  growth  —  §  872.  Acquisition  by  the 
Hebrews  of  the  art  of  writing  —  §873.  Egypt  probably  not  the  source 
of  the  Phoenician  alphabet —  §  874.  Presumption  in  favour  of  Mesopotamia 

—  ji  875.  Evidence  of  invention  by  Aramaeans  —  §876.  Presumption  of 
a  Babylonian  basis  and  material  —  §  877.  Whence  and  when  did  the 
Hebrews  acquire  the  art  of  writing?  —  §  K7*.  Writing  universal  among 
early  Semites  —  §  879.  Testimony  of  Jud.  v.  —  §  880.  Israel  before  Moses 
partook  of  the  culture  of  Canaan  —  §  881.  Literary  bearings  of  the  ques- 
tion only  indirect — §882.  For  what  purposes  writing  was  employed 
successively  —  §883.  Periods  of  Hebrew  literature  up  to  the  Exile  — 
§  884.  Distinction  in  modes  of  origination  —  §  885.  Earliest  stories  of 
Genesis  —  §  886.  Distinction  of  motives  in  their  composition  —  §  887.  How 
they  came  to  be  preserved  —  §  888.  Poetic  national  memorials  easily 
remembered—  §  889.    The  Song  of  Lamech  —  §  890.    The  Song  of  Miriam 

—  §891.  The  desert  journey  and  the  Mosaic  legislation  —  §892.  The 
Decalogue  —  §  893.  No  surviving  literature  of  the  desert  wanderings  — 
§894.  -'Book  of  the  wars  of  Jehovah"  —  §895.  Other  Pentateuchal 
poems  of  later  origin  —  §896.  Fragment  of  the  "Book  of  Jashar" — 
§897.  The  Song  of  Deborah  —  §898.  Lyric  tradition  maintained :  David's 
lament  over  Saul  and  Jonathan  —  §  899.  Collections  begun  for  an  inter- 
ested community  —  §  900.  Effect  of  national  unity  —  §  901.  Influence  of 
professional  scribes  —  §  902.  Motives  and  themes  of  new  compositions  — 
§  903.  Origin  of  literary  interest  in  the  fates  of  individuals  —  §  904.  Solo- 
mon's reign  more  favourable  to  collection  than  David's  —  §90-3.  The 
"Blessing  of  Jacob"  —  §  906.  Compilation  of  the  two  oldest  poetical 
books  — §  907.  The  reign  of  Solomon  the  end  of  a  period  — §  908.  Re- 
maining quotations  in  the  earlier  literature  —  §909.  Religious  poems 
ascribed  to  David  —  §910.  What  sort  of  "proverbs"  are  appropriate 
to  Solomon  —  §  911.  Absence  of  the  ethical  and  spiritual  in  this  early 
period  —  §  912.  General  characteristics  of  its  literature  —  §  913.  Its  vital 
and  potential  element  —  §  (.»14.  Next  period  marked  by  the  division  of 
the  kingdom  —  §  915.    In  how  far  the  Hebrew  literature  was  •■  national" 

—  §  916.  Inference  from  the  general  facts  —  §  917.  The  heroic  narrative 
of  Judges  —  §918.  Period  of  "heroic  prose"  and  its  conditions  — 
§  919.  Narratives  of  Saul  and  David  — §  920.  First  "Book  of  the  Cove- 
nant "  —  §  921.    Earlier  and  later  sections  of  the  book  —  §  922.    The  non- 


CONTEXTS 


practical  portions  the  later  —  §023.  Character  of  the  "prophetic  his- 
tories,'' J  and  E — §  '.124.  The  scope  and  purpose  of  these  works  — 
§  925.  Summary  of  the  contents  of  J  and  J  E  —  §926.  The  principal 
contents  of  E  —  §  927.    Characteristics  of  J  —  §  928.    Characteristics  of  E 

—  §  029.  Both  J  and  E  composite  works  —  §  930.  E  composed  in  north- 
ern Israel,  probably  about  770  b.c.  — §  931.  J  written  in  the  kingdom  of 
Judah  —  §  932.  Possibly  near  the  close  of  the  eighth  century  b.c.  — 
§  933.  The  motives  of  its  composition  —  §  934.  The  compilers  compared 
with  the  prophets  —  §  935.  Succeeding  literary  productions  —  §  936.  Re- 
lation of  written  prophecy  to  the  earlier  literature  —  §937.  Unknown 
colleagues  and  helpers  of  the  prophets  —  §  938.  Prophetic  writing'  shows 
the  oratorical  style  —  §  939.  The  manner  of  Amos  implies  earlier  pro- 
phetic writing  —  §940.  Occasions  and  effects  of  public  speaking  — 
§  941.  Need  of  a  new  and  living  word  during  the  Assyrian  period  — 
§  i»42.  Prophetic  literature  held  the  field  alone  for  a  whole  century  — 
§ '.'4:1.  Progress  from  the  historians,  through  the  earlier  prophets,  to 
Deuteronomy — §944.  Decisive  practical  advance  made  by  the  Deute- 
ronomist — §  !»45.  Close  organic  association  of  J  E  and  Deuteronomy 

CHAPTER   IV 

Religion  and  Morals.     §  946-1018.     P.  81-125 

§  946.  Religion  as  a  main  factor  in  the  moral  history  of  Israel  — 
§  '.'47.  Estimate  of  the  morality  of  the  individual  in  earlier  times  — 
§  948.  Conditions  of  patriarchal  morality  —  §  949.   classes  of  moral  acts 

—  §  950.  How  the  will  of  the  community  determined  the  moral  standard 

—  §  951.  Obedience  to  the  claims  of  the  deities  —  ^  952.  Reliability  of 
our  sources  of  informati  >n  —  §  953.  Deceit  in  primitive  life  —  §  954.  Com- 
parison with  other  virtues —  §  1)55.   The  record  of  patriarchal  frauduleney 

—  §  956.  Relations  of  the  sexes  —  §  957.  Violations  of  chastity  —  j  958.  Al- 
truistic virtues  —  §  959.  Generosity  and  magnanimity  —  §960.  Joseph's 
character  in  connection  with  Ins  history  —  §  961.  Distinctive  traits  of 
the  patriarchs  —  >•  (.>62.  Moral  quality  of  their  adherence  to  Jehovah— 
§  963.  Heroic  and  semi-barbarOUS  virtues  of  the  age  of  the  judges  — 
§  964.  Treachery  ami  tribalism  §  965.  Prevalent  unchastity  — §  966.  In- 
fluences for  and  against  the  altruistic  virtues  — §  967.  The  rise  of  the 
kingdom  distinguished  by  patriotism  — §  968.  Potential  value  of  the  cen- 
tral sanctuary  —  §  969.  Personal  prowess  and  self-devotion  among  the 
chiefs  —  £  970.  Veracity  still  unfashionable  —  §  971.  Sexual  irregularities 

—  §972.  Generosity  varied  by  cruelty  and  wrongs  —  §  973.  Explanation 
of  tribal  morality  —  §  974.  The  need  of  public  teachers  supplied  by  the 
prophets  —  §  975.  Mora!  censorship  a  secondary  matter  in  the  ministry 
of  Samuel  —  §  u~i'>.  The  significance  of  Samuel  in  Old  Testamenl  morals 

—  §  077.  Advance  shown  in  Nathan's  rebuke  of  David  —  §  978.  Prophecj 
in   abeyance  under  Solomon  —  §  979.    Prophetic  encouragemeul  of  the 


CONTEXTS 


revolt  of  the  "Ten  Tribes " —  §  980.  Moral  effect  of  the  dread  of  Jehovah 

—  §  981.  The  moral  crisis  under  Ahab  —  §  982.  How  the  royal  crime 
awakened  the  popular  conscience  —  §  983.  Prophetic  morality  as  repre- 
senting a  cause  and  a  party  —  §  984.  Conditions  of  moral  progress  — 
§  985.  Advance  in  the  conception  of  the  character  of  Jehovah  —  §  986.  In- 
telligent inward  rejection  of  idolatry  and  its  accompaniments  —  §  987.  A 
new  conception  of  the  religious  community  —  §  988.  Necessity  of  a  self-sac- 
rificing struggle  —  §  989.  Moral  results  of  national  unification  —  §  990.  In- 
dustrial and  commercial  progress  —  §  991.  Effects  of  the  schism  between 
rich  and  poor  —  §  992.  Concentration  of  national  worship  —  §  993.  A 
system  of  moral  education  —  §  994.  Moral  and  spiritual  contrasts  in  the 
closing  days  of  northern  Israel  —  §  995.  The  party  of  Jehovah  in  Judah  ; 
Isaiah's  disciples  —  §  996.  Helpers  and  comrades  of  the  prophets  in  the 
whole  course  of  prophecy  —  §  997.  Periods  of  moral  and  religious  history 
from  Hezekiah  to  the  death  of  Josiah  —  §  998.  Germinal  ideas  and  prog- 
ress in  the  time  of  Isaiah  and  Micah  —  §  999.  First  necessary  limitation  : 
the  localizing  of  Jehovah's  influence  and  interest  —  §  1000.  Second  limita- 
tion :  corporate  or  representative  character  of  moral  responsibility  — 
§  1001.   Third  limitation  :  lack  of  proportion  in  estimating  moral  qualities 

—  §  1002.  Significance  of  the  reforming  period  of  Hezekiah  —  §  1003.  The 
third  period,  the  time  of  Manasseh,  a  preparation  for  the  reforming  pe- 
riod of  Josiah  —  §  1004.  This  third  period  determined  the  final  issues  — 
§  1005.  Parallel  with  earlier  seasons  of  degeneracy  —  §  1006.  Earnestness 
of  the  worshippers  of  Molech  —  §  1007.  Reaction  in  favour  of  Jehovah  — 
§  1008.   Effect  of  religious  and  moral  antagonisms  on  belief  and  doctrine 

—  §  1009.  Nature  and  consequences  of  the  conception  of  the  holiness  of 
Jehovah  —  §  1010.  Results  in  the  development  of  moral  individuality  — 
§  1011.  The  ideas  of  sin  and  forgiveness  —  §  1012.  Preparation  for  Deu- 
teronomy and  the  Reformation  —  §  1013.  Moral  influence  of  the  priest- 
hood—  §  1014.  The  priests  as  securing  divine  favour  for  their  clients  — 
§  1015.  Priests  in  Israel  as  intercessors  and  counsellors  —  §  1016.  Moral 
helpfulness  of  the  priestly  profession  —  §  1017.  Reforming  and  literary 
work  of  the  priests  —  §  1018.  Moral  and  religious  influence  of  men 
unknown  to  history 


CHAPTER   V 

The  Reformation  in  Effect.     §  1019-1026.     P.  126-131 

§  1019.  Reforms  accomplished  during  the  lifetime  of  Josiah  —  §  1020.  Ob- 
stacles hard  to  overcome  —  §  1021.  Inherent  difficulties  —  §  1022.  The  cor- 
porate unity  of  the  nation  the  strength  and  weakness  of  the  movement  — 
§  1023.  The  ethical  and  the  ritual  element  compared  —  §  1024.  Deuteron- 
omy and  the  truer  national  life  —  §  1025.  Its  preparation  for  individualism 
—  §  1026.  Effect  of  the  prescribed  ritual  system 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER   VI 

The  Egyptians  in  Palestine.     §  1027-1044.     P.  132-142 

§  1027.  Military  strength  of  Josiah's  administration  —  §  1028.  Fate- 
ful results  of  a  warlike  movement  —  §  1029.  Change  in  Egyptian  policy 
—  §  1030.  The  new  dynasty  of  Sais  —  §  1031.  Enterprise  of  Pharaoh 
Necho  — §  1032.  Revival  of  foreign  ambitions  —  §  1033.  Prospects  of 
an  invasion  of  Western  Asia  —  §  1034.  Josiah  and  Necho  at  Megiddo  — 
§  1035.  The  mourning  for  Josiah  —  §  1036.  Influence  of  his  oath  to  As- 
syria—I 1037.  Explanation  of  his  antipathy  towards  Egypt  —  §  1038.  The 
Egyptian  occupation  —  §  1039.  Accession  and  captivity  of  Jehoahaz  — 
§  lniO.  Eliakim  (Jehoiakim)  the  vassal  of  Egypt  — §  1041.  Character 
of  the  Egyptian  regime— §  1042.  The  Babylonian  Nabopolassar  — 
§  1043.  The  Egyptians  succumb  to  young  Nebuchadrezzar  —  §  1044.  Judah 
a  dependency  of  Babylon 


Book  X 

HEBREWS   AND    CHALDEANS 

CHAPTER   I 

Babylon  and  Nebuchadrezzar.     §  1045-1064.     P.  143-159 

§  1045.  Scope  and  duration  of  Babylonian  influence  —  §  1046.  Interest 
of  the  story  of  the  Chaldseans  —  §  1047.  Resume  of  their  earlier  history 
—  §  1048.  Their  devotion  to  Babylon  —  §  1049.  They  combine  Assyrian 
and  Babylonian  types  of  character  —  §  1050.  They  made  few  great 
changes  in  the  Semitic  world  — §1051.  Nabopolassar  and  his  plans  — 
§  1052.  Character  of  Nebuchadrezzar  —  §  1053.  His  religious  spirit  — 
§  1054.  Purity  of  his  religious  feeling  —  §  1055.  Point  of  view  in  our 
study  of  Babylon  —  §  1056.  Greatness  of  the  city —  §  1057.  Description  by 
Berossus  —  §  1058.  Situation  and  defences  of  Babylon  —  §  1059.  Streets, 
bridges,  quays,  and  river  traffic  —  §  1060.  The  temple  of  Merodaeh  and 
its  belongings  — §  1061.  The  tower  of  Babel  — §  1062.  The  new  royal 
palace  —  §  1063.  Borsippa,  its  temple  of  Nebo  and  its  tower  —  §  1064.  Life 
of  the  people  of  Babylon 

CHAPTER   II 

Silences  of  Prophecy  till  the  Chaldean  Epoch.     §  1065-1074. 
P.  L6O-106 

§  1065.  Prophetic  silence  during  the  Deuteronomic  period  —  §  1066. 
Why  the  work  of  the  preaching  prophets  was  non-official  —  §  1067.    Jere- 


CONTENTS 


rniali  takes  no  part  in  the  measures  of  reform  —  §  1068.  His  indifference 
towards  ritual  and  ceremony  —  §  1069.  He  had  no  official  dealings  with 
Josiah  —  §  1070.  The  prophets  stood  in  advance  of  as  well  as  aloof  from 
the  king  and  his  officers  —  §  1071.    Symptoms  of  this  radical  separation 

—  §  1072.  Why  prophecy  concerned  itself  with  international  affairs  — 
§  1073.   Were  prophets  or  priests  concerned  in  Josiah's  fatal  campaign  ? 

—  §  1074.    The  Chaldsean  era  and  public  prophecy 


CHAPTER    III 
Judah's  Vassalage  to  the  Chald.eans.     §  1075-1081.     P.  167-171   . 

§  1075.  Process  of  subjection  of  Syria  and  Palestine  —  §  1076.  Atti- 
tude of  Nebuchadrezzar  towards  Judah  —  §  1077.  Expected  help  from 
Egypt  an  encouragement  to  revolt  —  §  1078.  Repression  of  the  rebellion 
and  death  of  Jehoiakim  —  §  1070.  Young  Jehoiachin  and  his  surrender  — 
§  1080.  Treatment  of  the  conquered  people  —  §  1081.  Fate  of  the  king 
and  the  exiles  of  the  first  captivity 

CHAPTER   IV 

Jeremiah  and  the  Coming  of  the  Chald.eans.     §  1082-1127 
P.  172-200 

§  1082.  Jeremiah  almost  wholly  a  prophet  of  the  Chaldsean  period  — 
§  1083.  Date  of  his  first  great  discourse,  605  b.c.  —  §  1084.  His  previous 
silence  and  his  sudden  prominence  —  §  1085.  Political  occasions  of  the 
opening  prophecies  —  §  1086.  Composition  and  occasion  of  the  first  dis- 
course —  §  1087.  National  trouble  after  the  death  of  Josiah — §  1088.  Second 
condition:  conflict  at  Carchemish — §  1089.   The  battle-song  of  Jeremiah 

—  §  1090.  His  forecast  of  the  Chaldaeans  — §  1091.  Third  condition  :  the 
expected  invasion  from  the  north  —  §  1002.  Dramatic  scene  at  its  an- 
nouncement—  §  1003.  Jeremiah  and  his  professional  rivals  —  §  1094. 
Modes  of  false  and  true  worship  —  §  1005.  Crime  and  punishment  of 
Tophet  —  §  1006.  Exile  and  outlawry  of  souls  —  §  1007.  Falsifying  reve- 
lation —  §  1098.  The  prophet's  mood  of  grief  and  vexation  —  §  1099.  The 
Old  Testament  Confession  —  §  1100.  Punishment  for  the  broken  Cove- 
nant —  §  1101.  Attempt  at  assassination  —  §  1102.  Lesson  from  the 
potter's  art — §1103.  Attitude  of  the  priests  and  prophets  —  §1104. 
Mutual  hostility  and  Jeremiah's  maledictions  —  §  1105.  Aggravations  of 
his  wrongs  —  §  1106.  His  blame  for  loyalty  to  Jehovah  —  §  1107.  The 
problem  of  his  suffering  —  §  1108.    Jeremiah  the  representative  of  a  class 

—  §  1109.  The  supreme  trial  prepares  him  for  conflict  —  §  1110.  The 
potter's  vessel  and  the  valley  of  Tophet  —  §  1111.  Official  punishment  of 
Jeremiah  —  §  1112.  His  inward  conflict  and  victory  —  §  1113.  Vindica- 
tion of  his  attitude  toward  the  Chaldreans  —  §  1114.    Moral  necessity  of 


CONTENTS 


national  chastisement  —  §  1115.     He  plainly  announces  Nebuchadrezzar 

—  §1116.  Jeremiah  interdicted;  his  message  committed  to  writing  — 
§  1117.  Literary  form  of  the  discourses  —  §  1118.  Time  and  place  of 
Baruch's  public  reading  —  §  1119.  Consequences  of  the  lecture  —  §  1120. 
Burning  of  the  roll  by  Jehoiakim — §  1121.  Execution  of  Jeremiah 
threatened  —  §  1122.  Character  and  policy  of  Jehoiakim  —  §  1123.  The 
attitude  of  the  politicians  —  §1124.  Interval  of  political  quiescence  — 
§  1125.  Jeremiah  and  his  rivals  during  the  great  drought  —  §  1120.  The 
prophet  comforted  and  encouraged  —  §  1127.  Jeremiah's  vicarious  min- 
istry of  suffering 

CHAPTER   V 

Habakkuk  and  the  Chald.eaxs.     §  1128-1139.     P.  210-219 

§  1128.  Characteristics  of  the  book  of  Habakkuk  — §  1129.  Parallel 
with  Nahurn  —  §  1130.  The  Chaldseans  as  scourges  of  Israel  —  §  1131.  Why 
are  the  Chaldseans  not  themselves  punished?  —  §  1132.  The  prophet  on 
his  watch-tower  —  §  1133.  His  answer  of  faith  triumphant  —  §  1134.  Fu- 
tility uf  the  Chaldaean  regime  —  §  1135.  The  moral  case  against  them 
and  their  merited  doom  —  §  1136.  Meaning  of  Hab.  iii.  —  §  1137.  Date 
of  the  prophecy  —  §  1138.  Progress  from  Zephaniah  to  Habakkuk  — 
§  1139.    Habakkuk  and  Jeremiah 

CHAPTER   VI 

Jeremiah  amd  the  First  Rebellion-.     §  1140-1147.     P.  220-226 

§  1140.  Prophecies  of  the  first  rebellion  — §  1141.  The  Rechabites  — 
j  1142.    Lessons  for  Israel  —  §  1143.    Prophetic  laments  over  Jehoiachin 

—  §  1111     Reminiscence  of  his  fate  —  §  1145.    Harshness  of  the  Ian. 
explained  —  §  1146.    Misfortune  as  a  measure  of  sin  —  §  1147.    The  actual 
fate  of  Jehoiachin 

CHAPTER    VII 

Jeremiah  and  Jcdah's   Last   PROBATION.     §  1148-1173.     1'.  227-244 

§  Ills.  Zedekiah  as  a  Chaldsean  vassal  —  §  1149.  Situation  of  Jeremiah 

—  §  1150.  An  epoch  in  his  public  and  literary  career  —  §  1151.  Zedekiah, 

his  ill-fortune  and  his  weaknesses — §  1152.  His  people  after  the  deporta- 
tion—  §  1153     Effect  of  the  changes  of  fortune  —  §    1151.   Their  troubles 

as  payers  of  tribute  —  §1155.  Their  religious  sentiments  —  §  1156.  Effecl 
upon  their  political  views  —  ^  1157.  Movement  towards  revolt;  how  met 
by  Jeremiah  —  §1158.  Encouragement  to  sedition  by  the  prophet  Hana- 

niah — §  1159.  Spectacular  close  of  the  controversy  —  ^   1160.   The  fate 


CONTENTS 


and  case  of  Hananiah  —  §  1161.  Counsel  for  Zedekiah  —  §  1162.  Indict- 
ment of  the  rival  school  of  prophets  —  §  1163.  Oracle  concerning  Edom  — 
§  1164.  The  prophet's  care  for  the  exiles  in  Babylon  —  §  1165.  Prophetic 
hopes  centred  in  them  —  §  1166.  Parable  of  the  figs  —  §  1167.  Embassy 
from  Zedekiah  to  Babylon  —  §  1108.  Jeremiah's  letter  to  the  captives  — 
§  1169.  His  opponents  in  Babylonia  —  §  1170.  The  intrigue  of  Shemaiah 
and  its  failure  —  §  1171.  Zedekiah's  journey  to  Babylon  and  renewed 
submission  —  §  1172.  The  message  of  Babylon's  final  doom  —  §  1173.  End 
of  Jeremiah's  role  as  Babylonian  prophet 


CHAPTER   VIII 

Ezekiel  in  Exile  and  the  Home-land.     §  1174-1206.     P.  245-267 

§  1174.  Ezekiel  the  priest-prophet  —  §  1175.  His  style  and  teaching  — 
§  1176.  His  interest  in  the  home-land  and  its  people  —  §  1177.  Limitations 
of  his  prophecies  relating  to  them  —  §  1178.  Siege  of  Jerusalem  symboli- 
cally portrayed  —  §  1179.  Horrors  of  the  siege  symbolized  —  §  1180.  Rep- 
resentation of  the  subsequent  fate  of  the  people  with  bitter  denunciations 

—  §  1181.  Effect  of  Ezekiel's  visions  on  the  leaders  of  the  people  — 
§  1182.   Vision  of  Jehovah's  glory  and  the  contrasted  "jealousy-image" 

—  §  1183.  Vision  of  primitive  beast- worship — §  1184.  The  weeping  for 
Tammuz  —  §1185.  Illustration  from  Babylonian  literature  —  §  1186.  Ex- 
planation of  the  myth  —  §  1187.  Its  religious  motive  —  §  1188.  An  image 
of  a  world-wide  tragedy — §  1189.  Its  moral  danger — §  1190.  Historical 
illustration  of  the  evil  —  §  1191.  A  vision  of  sun-worship  in  the  temple  — 
§  1192.  The  saving  mark  on  the  forehead  —  §  1193.  Vision  of  the  firing 
of  Jerusalem  —  §  1194.  The  doom  of  the  plotters  of  sedition  —  §  1195.  The 
restoration  and  the  change  of  heart  —  §  1196.  The  city  as  forsaken  by 
Jehovah  —  §  1197.  A  vision  of  sudden  flight  —  §  1198.  Current  fallacies 
due  to  false  prophecy  —  §  1199.  Evil  work  of  false  prophetesses  — 
§  1200.  The  people  themselves  ready  to  be  deceived  —  §  1201.  They  are 
not  to  be  saved  by  the  righteousness  of  others  —  §  1202.  Parables  of  the 
character  and  fate  of  Israel  —  §  1203.  Ezekiel's  preaching  intermitted  — 
§  1204.  The  responsibility  of  the  individual  —  §  1205.  How  the  exiles 
reasoned  about  their  fate  and  its  cause  —  §  1206.  Discourse  to  the  depu- 
tation of  elders 

CHAPTER   IX 

Rebellion,  Siege,  and  Fall  of  Jerusalem.    §  1207-1239.    P.  268-295 

§  1207.  Change  of  riders  in  Egypt  —  §  1208.  Egypt  encourages  revolt 
in  Judah  —  §  1209.  Allegory  of  the  two  eagles,  the  cedar,  and  the  vine  — 
§  1210.  Nebuchadrezzar  consulting  the  oracles — §  1211.  The  mode  of 
divination  —  §  1212.  Parable  of  Judab's  relations  with  foreign  peoples  — 
§  1213.   Expedition  against  Palestine  —  §  1214.  Process  of  the  siege  of 


CONTENTS 


Jerusalem  —  §  1215.  Zedekiah's  appeal  to  Jeremiah  —  §  1216.  The  doom 
of  Zedekiah  and  its  mitigation  —  §  1217.  Treatment  of  the  slaves  in  Jeru- 
salem—  §  1218.  Their  temporary  release  and  their  reenslavement  — 
§  1219.  Jeremiah's  indictment  of  the  offenders  —  §  1220.  Jeremiah  pre- 
dicts the  return  of  the  Chakkeans —  §  1221.  Arrest  and  imprisonment  of 
Jeremiah  —  §  1222.  Retreat  of  the  Egyptians  and  resumption  of  the  siege 

—  §  1223.  Mistaken  heroism  of  the  defenders — §  1224.  Interview  with 
Zedekiah ;  Jeremiah  in  the  royal  courtyard  —  §  1225.  Property  in  Ana- 
thoth  transferred  to  Jeremiah  —  §  1226.  The  prophet's  hope  of  future 
restoration  —  §  1227.  He  is  thrust  into  an  empty  cistern  —  §  1228.  The  king 
persuaded  to  rescue  him  —  §  1229.  Last  interview  between  Zedekiah  and 
Jeremiah  —  §  1230.  End  of  the  siege :  the  breach  in  the  wall  —  §  1231.  Flight 
and  capture  of  the  royal  party  —  §  1232.  Treatment  of  the  conquered  city 

—  §  1233.  Methods  of  devastation  —  §  1234.  Deportation  of  citizens  — 
§  1235.  Fate  of  the  king  and  the  leaders  of  the  revolt — §  123G.  The  siege 
of  Jerusalem  in  Hebrew  literature  —  §  1237.  Authorship  of  the  Lamenta- 
tions—  §  1238.  The  poems  set  forth  historical  situations  ;  do  not  relate 
the  facts  of  history  —  §  1239.  Kindred  literature  probably  of  a  later  time 

CHAPTER   X 
The  Remnant  in  Palestine  and  Egypt.     §  1240-1262.    P.  296-312 

§  1240.  Condition  of  the  remnant  of  Judah  in  Palestine  —  §  1241.  The 
Babylonian  policy  towards  them  —  §  1242.  Gedaliah,  Jeremiah,  and  the 
captain  of  the  guard — §  1243.  Formation  of  the  new  settlement  —  §  1244. 
Jeremiah  and  the  services  of  religion  —  §  1245.  Ishmael  the  traitor  — 
§  1246.  His  murder  of  Gedaliah  — §  1247.  His  other  atrocities  —  §  1248. 
Surprise  and  escape  of  Ishmael  —  §  1249.  Panic  and  southward  flight  of 
the  Judaite  chiefs  —  §  1250.  Deportation  of  the  remainder — §  1251.  The 
desolation  of  Judah  —  §1252.  Jeremiah  resorted  to  as  counsellor  — 
§  1253.  He  gives  an  oracle  dissuading  from  flight  to  Egypt  —  §  1254.  Ilis 
counsel  disregarded  :  the  march  to  Egypt  —  §  1255.  Symbolical  action  of 
the  overthrow  of  Pharaoh  Hophra  —  §  1256.  Worship  of  the  "Queen  of 
Heaven"  —  §  1257.  Jeremiah's  last  denunciation  and  his  martyrdom  — 
§  1258.  His  prophetic  genius  and  its  decisive  test  —  §  1259.  Illustration 
from  modern  conditions  —  §  1260.  The  prophet's  vision  and  the  national 
fiction  —  §  1261.  Our  modern  prophets  and  our  national  fiction  — §  1262. 
Meaning  of  Jeremiah's  life  for  humanity 

CHAPTER  XI 

The  Exile  as  an  Epoch.     §  1263-1267.     P.  313-317 

§  1263.  Paradox  of  the  results  of  the  exile  and  its  antecedents  — 
§  1264.  Problem  of  causes  and  effects  —  §  1265.  Questions  suggested  by 
the  Babylonian  residence —  §  1266.  Need  of  a  particular  inquiry  — 
§  1267.    Historical  clearness  promoted  by  the  exile 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER    XII 

The  Deportations.     §  1208-1271.     P.  318-320 

§  1268.  Preponderance  of  the  deportation  of  597  b.c. — §  1269.  In- 
ferences—  §  1270.  Various  classes  of  the  deported  people  —  §  1271.  Con- 
dition of  the  exiles  on  the  journey 

CHAPTER   XIII 
The  Hebrew  Settlement  in   Babtlonia.     §  1272-1289.     P.  321-334 

§  1272.  Region  of  the  principal  settlement  —  §  1273.  Local  distribu- 
tion of  the  exiles  —  §  1274.  How  their  employments  were  determined  — 
§  1275.  Their  antecedent  occupations  in  Palestine  —  §  1276.  Agriculture, 
trade,  industrial  and  other  arts  in  Babylonia  —  §  1277.  A  time  of  oppor- 
tunity for  settlers  —  §  1278.  Social  and  business  conditions;  status  and 
treatment  of  slaves  —  §  1279.  Classification  of  Babylonian  slaves  — 
§1280.  Distinctive  advantages  afforded  by  the  Babylonian  system  — 
§  1281.    Freedom   of   movement  possible   to  the  higher  order  of  slaves 

—  g  1282.  The  conditions  summed  up  —  §  1283.  Importance  of  agricul- 
ture in  Babylonian  life  —  §1284.  The  country  round  about  Nippur  — 
§  1285.  Effect  of  the  rise  of  Babylon  and  of  the  Kasshite  dynasty  — 
§1286.  Later  vicissitudes;  disfavour  of  Nebuchadrezzar  —  §1287.  The 
business  functions  of  the  temple  and  the  priests  —  §  1288.  Source  of  their 
influence  upon  the  progress  of  the  country  —  §  1289.  Nebuchadrezzar's 
displeasure  towards  them  connected  with  the  settlement  of  the  Hebrews 

CHAPTER    XIV 

Employments  of  the  Exiles  in  Babylonia.     §  1290-1306 
P.  335-349 

§  1290.  What  water  was  to  Babylonia  —  §  1291.  System  of  canaliza- 
tion east  of  the  Euphrates  —  §  1292.  Condition  of  the  region  enjoying 
the  water  supply — §  1293.  How  the  Euphrates  itself  was  affected  with 
its  affluents:  modern  illustration  —  §  1294.  Recent  illustration  east  of 
the  Euphrates  —  §  1295.  The  general  condition  of  the  country  character- 
ized—  §1296.  The  exiles  to  be  restorers  and  repairers  of  wastes  and 
ruins  —  §  1l".i7.  Agreement  with  the  policy  of  Nebuchadrezzar  —  ;i  1298. 
Summary  of  the  situation  —  §  1299.  The  canals  that  gave  the  water 
supply  —  §  130(1.  Modern  canals  of  this  region  —  §  1301.  Occupations  of 
the  colonists  after  the  settlement  —  §  1302.    Extension  of  their  avocations 

—  S  1303.  Improvement  of  the  land:  its  productions  —  §  1304.  Need  of 
vigilance  against  constant  dangers —  §  1305.  Uses  of  the  Kebar  for  navi- 
gation—  §  1306.    What  became  of  the  Hebrew  artisans? 


CONTEXTS 


CHAPTER   XV 

The  Exiles  as  a  Community.     §  1307-1312.     P.  350-353 

§  1307.  Relations  with  the  central  government  —  §  1308.  The  king's 
interest  in  the  principal  colony  —  §  1309.  Solidarity  of  the  exiles  — 
§  1310.  Simple  organization  of  the  colonies  —  §  1311.  Administration  of 
family  heads  and  elders  —  §  1312.    Leadership  and  general  oversight 


Book  XI 

HEBREWS,  CHALDJEANS,   AXD   PERSIANS 

CHAPTER    I 

Morals  and  Religion  of  Israel  in-  Exile.     §  1313-1340.     P.  354-079 

§  1313.  The  true  Israel  revealed  and  on  trial  in  captivity  —  §  1314.  The 
physical  environment  as  affecting  mind  and  temperament  —  §  1315.  New 
conceptions  of  life  and  history  awakened  —  §  1316.  A  change  of  polit- 
ical ideals  fostered  —  §  1317.  General  conditions  of  social  progress  — 
>  1318.  Great  determining  moral  factors — §  1319.  Importance  of  business 
relations  —  §  1320.  Effect  of  business  on  character — §  1321.  Careful  pro- 
tection of  business  interests  in  Babylonia — §  1322.  Hebrew  business 
antecedents  and  principles  —  §  1323.  Babylonian  rules  and  procedure — 
§  1324.  Dealings  in  agricultural  business  —  §  1325.  The  moral  discipline 
for  Israel  —  §  1320.    How  slaves  and  servants  could  better  their  condition 

—  §  1327.  Qualifying  observations  —  §  1328,  Limitations  of  the  moral 
influence  —  §  1329.   Paramount  importance  of  religious  and  moral  issues 

—  §  1330.  Danger  and  evil  of  unchastity  —  §  1331.  A  one-sided  restriction 

—  §  1332.  Encouragement  of  sacred  prostitution  —  §  1333.  How  the  He- 
brews regarded  it  —  §  13:i4.   Their  repugnance  to  idolatry  in  an  alien  land 

—  §  1335.  Better  opportunities  for  the  prophetic  teaching  —  §  1330.  Re- 
ligious  dilemma:  question  as  to  the  power  of  Jehovah  — §  1337.  Could 
Jehovah  actually  be  and  have  control  in  Babylonia?  —  §  1338.  Effect  on 
prevailing  conceptions  of  God — §  1339.  Earlier  progress  in  religious  indi- 
vidualism—§  1340.  Effect  of  the  scattering  of  the  oation  — §  1341.  Jere- 
miah's conception  of  the  new  Covenant — §  1342.  Ezekiel's  denial  of 
imputed  guilt  —  §  1343.  Ezekiel  as  continuing  the  spirit  of  Deuteron- 
omy—  §  1344.  Summary  of  Ezekiel's  later  teaching  —  §  1345.  The  per- 
manent elements  of  the  religion  of  the  exiles  —  §  1346.  The  Sabbath  as 
a  Babylonian  institution  —  §  1347.   Advantage  of  a   stated  day  of  rest 

—  §  1348.  Mourning  and  self-abasement  of  the  religious  meetings  — 
§   13 lit.    Effect  of  the  sifting  and  purifying  process 


C<  >NTEXTS 


CHAPTER    II 

Hebrew  Literature  of  the  Exile.     §  1350-1363.     P.  380-388 

§  1350.  Internal  causes  of  the  literary  activity  of  the  Exile  — 
§  1351.  Outward  conditions,  especially  Babylonian  influences — §  1352.  Ef- 
fect upon  form  and  style  —  §  1353.  Examples  in  post-exilic  writers  — 
§  1354.  Increased  employment  of  symbol  and  allegory  —  §1355.  Increase 
of  historical  interest  —  §  1356.  Effect  of  Deuteronomy  in  a  one-sided  view 
of  historic  principles  —  §  1357.  The  books  of  Kings  and  the  national  cultus 

—  §  1358.   References  made  to  earlier  sources  —  §  1359.  Narrative  addi- 
tions to  the  annals  of  the  kings  —  §  1360.  The  probability  of  two  revisions 

—  §  1361.   Revision  and  reshaping  of  Deuteronomy,  Judges,  and  Samuel 

—  §  1302.  Ritualistic  work:  the  Law  of  Holiness  —  §  1363.  Psalm  com- 
position 


CHAPTER   III 

The  Chaldean-  Dominion.     §  1365-1372.     P.  389-394 

§  1364.  General  policy  of  Nebuchadrezzar  —  §  1365.  Siege  of  Tyre  and 
campaigns  in  Egypt  —  §  1366.  Prophecies  of  Jeremiah  and  Ezekiel  con- 
cerning Egypt  —  §  1367.  Ezekiel's  discourses  on  Tyre  and  Sidon  — 
§  1368.  The  closing  stage  of  the  Chaldsean  empire  —  §  1369.  Evil-Mero- 
dach  —  §  1370.  Neriglissar  and  his  short-lived  son  —  §  1371.  Accession 
and  character  of  Nabonidus  —  §  1372.  His  policy  toward  the  provincial 
cities 

CHAPTER   IV 

Cyrus  and  the  Persians.     §  1373-1389.     P.  395-407 

§  1373.  The  Iranians  —  §  1374.  Iran  and  the  westward  migrations  of 
Medes  and  Persians  — §  1375.  The  Iranian  communities — §  1376.  Their 
religion  —  §  1377.  Its  contrast  with  Semitism  —  §  1378.  Early  history  of 
the  Persian  branch  —  §  1379.  Conflict  and  compromise  of  the  Medes  and 
Lydians  —  §  1380.  Forecast  of  consequences  —  §  1381.  Cyrus  in  myth 
and  legend  —  §  1382.  Cyrus  as  conqueror  of  the  Medes  —  §  1383.  He  thus 
rids  Mesopotamia  of  the  Scythians  —  §  1384.  Were  the  Scythians  then  in 
control  of  Media'.'  —  §  1385.  Explanation  of  the  submission  of  the  Medes 
to  Cyrus  —  §  1386.  Rapid  organization  of  a  Medo-Persian  empire  — 
§  1387.  Invasion  of  Median  territory  by  Crcesus  of  Lydia  —  §  1388.  Con- 
quest of  his  kingdom  by  Cyrus  —  §  1389.  Annexation  of  the  Greek  colo- 
nies and  of  eastern  Iran 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER   V 

Cyrus  King  of  Babylon.     §  1390-1399.     P.  408-414 

§  1390.  Happy  fortune  of  Cyrus  —  §  1391.  His  delay  in  marching  upon 
Babylon  —  §  1392.  Misgovernment  and  folly  of  Nabonidus  —  §  1393.  A 
divine  commission  to  right  the  wrongs  of  the  Babylonians  —  §  13'.»4.  Change 
in  the  policy  of  Nabonidus  —  §  1395.  The  campaign  against  Babylon  in 
the  Inscriptions  —  §  1390.  The  connected  story  —  §  1397.  Babylonia  made 
a  Persian  kingdom  —  §  1398.  The  native  religion  retained  and  patronized 
by  Cyrus  —  §  1399.  Liberation  of  foreign  slaves  and  exiles 

CHAPTER    VI 

Prophetic  Ideals.     §  1400-1420.     P.  415-431 

§  1400.  Occasions  of  a  new  literary  epoch  —  §  1401.  The  Medes  and  the 
doom  of  Babylon  —  §  1402.  Picture  of  the  fallen  oppressor  —  §  140.!.  The 
Medes  in  Jer.  1.,  li. — §  1404.  Persia  and  Media  in  Isa.  xxi.  1-10  — 
§  1405.  Isaiah  II:  his  training  and  outlook  —  §  1400.  His  genius  for 
expression  :  parallel  with  Vergil  —  §  1407.  The  prophet,  his  pupils  and 
coworkers  —  §  1408.  How  deliverance  should  be  effected  —  §  1409.  The 
vision  of  Cyrus  and  his  unknown  Leader — §  1410.  The  prophet  sees 
results  in  conditions  —  §  1411.  The  prophetic  view  of  Cyrus,  and  its 
implications  —  §  1412.  The  reputation  of  Cyrus  —  §  1413.  His  moral 
statesmanship  —  §  1414.  His  treatment  of  subject  states  —  §  1415.  The 
restoration  of  captives  —  §  1410.  The  religion  of  Cyrus  —  §  1417.  The 
unfulfilled  ideal  of  his  deeds  and  character  —  §  1418.  The  unfulfilled 
vision  of  prophecy  —  §  1419.  Its  larger  realization  —  §  1420.  Regenerative 
ideas  of  prophecy 


ADDITIONAL   ABBREVIATIONS 


ATR.  : 

BA. 
CIS. 
PB. 
EB. 

Einl.  ■ 

HA. 
Her. 

Kosmologie  ■■ 
MVG.  : 

Nab.  annals-. 
Neb. 
Nippur        ■ 

PCT. 

RBA. 


:  R.  Smend,  Lehrbuch  der  alttestamentlichen   Beligionsge- 
schichte,  1893. 

:  Beitrage  zur  Assyriologie,  edited  by  Delitzsch  and  Haupt. 

:  Corpus  inscriptionum  Semiticarum. 

--  Dictionary  of  the  Bible,  edited  by  James  Hastings. 

:  Encyclopaedia  Biblica,  edited  by  T.  K.  Cheyne  and  J.  S. 
Black. 

:  C.  H.  Cornill,  Einleitung  in  das  Alte  Testament,  4th  ed., 
1896. 

:  J.  Benzinger,  Hebrdische  Archdologie,  1894. 

:  Herodotus. 

:  P.  Jensen,  Kosmologie  der  Babylonier,  1890. 

■.Mittheilungen  der  vorderasiatischen  Oesellschaft. 

-.  Annals  of  Nabonidus,  §  1382. 

; Inscription  of  Nebuchadrezzar  II.  in  IR,  53-58. 

:  J.  P.  Peters,  Nippur,  or  Adventures  and  Explorations  on 
the  Euphrates,  2  vols.,  1897. 

:  Babylonian  Expedition  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania  ; 
Cuneiform  Texts,  vol.  IX,  1898. 

:  M.  Jastrow,  Jr.,  The  Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria. 
1898. 


SBOT. 


=  Sacred  Books  of  the  Old  Tt  stament,  edited  by  Paul  Haupt. 


Book  IX 
HEBREWS  AND  EGYPTIANS 

CHAPTER   I 

THE   KINGDOM   OF   JT7DAH   UNDER   JOSIAH 

§  835.  The  fortunes  of  Assyria  as  the  controlling  power 
of  the  Semitic  world  have  been  followed  until  the  empire 
and  its  capital  ceased  to  exist.  We  have  also  traced  the 
slow  but  steady  revival  of  Babylonia  under  ChakUcan 
leadership  and  in  a  general  way  described  the  condition 
of  the  wide  region  once  subject  to  the  rule  of  Nineveh 
(§  821).  The  survey  of  our  field  was,  however,  not  quite 
complete  ;  a  special  place  is  demanded  for  the  people  of 
Israel  during  the  closing  years  of  the  Assyrian  regime. 
To  help  to  an  understanding  of  the  affairs  of  the  kingdom 
of  Judah  during  this  and  the  following  period  up  to  the 
Exile,  we  may  again  refer  to  the  normal  political  relations 
lit-t  ween  Palestine  and  the  dominant  powers  of  Western 
Asia. 

§  836.  From  the  beginning  of  recorded  history  until 
Alexander  the  Great  brought  the  forces  of  Europe  into 
play,  the  fate  of  Palestine  and  Syria  was  controlled  from 
the  banks  of  the  Tigris  or  of  the  Euphrates,  [f  a1  any  t  ime 
a  change  took  place  in  the  general  situation,  it  was  brought 
about  by  the  restless  endeavours  of  Egypt  to  gain  a  footing 
in  Asia,  whenever  the  dominant  Asiatic  power  was  crippled 

B  1 


2  FORCES   OF   POLITICAL   HISTORY  Book  IX 

for  a  time  or  was  slowly  making  way  for  its  successor. 
We  may  recall  the  era  of  the  domination  of  the  separate 
states  in  old  Babylonia,  as  the  now  long-forgotten  cities  of 
the  lower  Euphrates  valley  came  each  in  turn  to  exclusive 
power.  We  next  bring  to  mind  the  political  and  intellec- 
tual supremacy  of  Babylon  itself  in  Syria  and  Palestine, 
followed  by  the  precarious  Egyptian  occupation,  after 
Assyria  and  Babylonia  had  begun  their  long  contention. 
Then  comes  before  us  the  epoch  of  Israel  in  Palestine, 
with  the  episodes  of  the  border  wars  and  the  rise  of 
Damascus,  all  made  possible  by  the  inaction  of  the  east- 
ern powers  whose  strength  was  being  wasted  upon  one 
another.  We  next  pass  in  review  the  era  of  Assyrian 
aggression,  its  slow  but  certain  acquisition  of  the  Syrian 
and  Palestinian  states,  the  subversion  of  Damascus,  the 
conquest  and  captivity  of  northern  Israel,  the  vassalage, 
the  rebellion,  and  the  chastisement  of  Judah. 

§  837.  If  from  the  same  historical  standpoint  we  now 
look  forward  instead  of  backward,  we  shall  see  the  same 
parts  still  being  played  by  the  leading  actors  in  the  drama. 
The  decline  of  Nineveh  and  the  withdrawal  of  its  garri- 
sons afford  Egypt  the  opportunity  of  grasping  again  at 
Asiatic  dominion,  and  even  of  masquerading  awhile  as  the 
heaven-sent  ruler  of  Palestine  (2  K.  xxiii.  34),  and  once 
more  her  fond  illusion  of  an  Asiatic  empire  is  dispelled  by 
an  older  and  stronger  claimant  from  beyond  the  River. 
Nineveh  is  gone,  but  Babylon  remains  and  revives.  The 
Chaldreans  succeed  to  the  empire  and  the  traditions  of 
Assyria.  Egypt  is  extruded  from  her  brief  occupancy  of 
Palestine,  and  the  old  problem  of  Hebrew  independence 
or  subjection  is  worked  out  as  before,  only  now  Nebuchad- 
rezzar is  the  controlling  factor  instead  of  Tiglathpileser  or 
Sargon.  Such  are  the  main  outward  conditions  of  the 
kingdom  of  Judah  in  the  days  of  King  Josiah  and  his  ill- 
fated  house. 

§  838.  My  readers  do  not  need  to  be  reminded  that  the 
domination  of  Assyria  and  Babylonia  in  Palestine  involved 


Cn.  I,  §  840  EARLY   TIMES   OF  JOSIAH  3 

much  more  than  mere  political  results.  But  its  religious 
and  moral  consequences  have  not  as  yet  been  so  obvious, 
because  they  are  not  immediately  suggested  by  the  out- 
ward events  that  more  obviously  mark  the  progress  of 
history.  Yet  it  is  in  the  movements  of  the  inner  life  of  a 
people  that  we  can  best  find  out  the  sources  and  the  pro- 
cess of  its  development,  as  the  qualities  of  a  soil  are  tested 
by  the  upturnings  of  the  plough.  The  whole  period  in 
the  history  of  Judah  from  Josiah  to  the  Exile  is  one  of 
those  seasons  of  startling  self-revelation  which  come  to 
nations  no  less  than  to  individuals,  and  in  studying  it  we 
must  not  lose  sight  of  this  secondary  aspect  of  international 
relations.  For  the  time  of  Josiah  itself,  which  now  more 
immediately  concerns  us,  we  have  ample  evidence,  often 
indirect  but  none  the  less  clear  and  strong,  as  to  the  inter- 
nal condition  of  the  kingdom,  most  of  it  drawn  from  the 
literature  of  the  most  instructive  religious  movement  of 
pre-christian  antiquity. 

§  839.  The  reign  of  Josiah  was  indeed  almost  wholly 
occupied  with  domestic  concerns.  When  he  came  to  the 
throne  (639  B.C.)  at  the  age  of  eight  years,  peace  prevailed, 
as  far  as  we  know,  throughout  the  dominion  of  Assyria. 
Egypt  had  been  lost  to  the  empire  about  six  years  pre- 
viously (§  768).  But  the  Scythians  had  not  yet  begun 
their  ravages  (§  811),  and  the  empire  was  otherwise  intact- 
The  great  insurrection  had  been  quelled,  and  no  spirit 
was  left  in  the  subject  states  for  further  revolt.  And 
when  the  collapse  of  the  empire  had  begun,  and  that  pro- 
cess of  degeneration  was  going  on  which  preceded  disso- 
lution (§  820  ff.),  Josiah,  the  young  monarch  now  come 
to  his  majority,  had  little  inducement  to  strike  for  inde- 
pendence. All  the  freer  was  he,  therefore,  to  engage  in 
that  moral  and  religious  work  which  has  given  him  a 
unique  distinction  among  the  kings  of  the  earth. 

§  840.  The  reforming  party  in  the  state,  under  whose 
fostering  care  the  young  king  spent  the  years  of  his 
minority,  had  learned  well  the  principles  of  the  foreign 


4  VIRTUAL   INDEPENDENCE   OF  JOSIAH         Book  IX 

policy  maintained  by  the  prophetic  teaching  throughout 
its  history  —  to  respect  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  suze- 
rain, to  engage  in  no  international  intrigues,  and  to  rest 
quietly  and  confidently  in  the  protection  of  Jehovah.  Only 
thus,  they  rightly  insisted,  was  it  possible  to  secure  the 
peace  and  tranquillity  necessary  for  the  worship  and  the 
practice  of  religion.  There  was  thus  no  inclination  to 
revolt,  even  when  the  chances  of  success  were  better  than 
ever  before.  Nor  was  there  temptation  to  unite  with  any 
of  the  feeble  surviving  communities  of  Palestine  so  as 
to  form  a  strong  independent  power.  Thus  the  party  of 
reform  did  not  fear  any  interruption  in  their  task  from 
partisans  of  disorder  and  sedition.  It  is  significant,  how- 
ever, of  the  freedom  of  action  which  Judah  claimed  for 
itself  that  the  district  of  Bethel,  which  was  a  part  of  the 
Northern  Kingdom,  was  now  claimed  by  the  king  at  Jeru- 
salem and  made  the  object  of  his  reforming  zeal,  along 
with  the  cities  of  Judah  proper  (2  K.  xxiii.  15  ff.). 

§  841.  While  Josiah  did  not  formally  renounce  his 
allegiance  to  the  moribund  kingdom  of  Assyria,  there 
were  unmistakable  evidences  that  the  bond  was  morally 
dissolved.  It  is  in  this  very  sphere  of  religious  reform, 
which  is  the  distinction  of  Josiah  and  his  epoch,  that  the 
virtual  independence  of  the  nation  is  most  plainly  marked. 
It  is  one  of  our  cardinal  principles  (§  200)  that  among 
the  ancient  nations  of  the  East  political  subjection  was, 
by  moral  necessity,  followed  by  religious  dependence. 
The  attentive  observer  will  find  this  nowhere  more  clearly 
exemplified  than  in  the  history  of  Israel  in  its  vassalage 
to  Assyria.  As  in  the  days  of  Ahaz  (§  640),  so  in  the 
times  of  Manasseh,  during  most  of  whose  reign  all  opposi- 
tion to  the  Assyrian  domination  had  ceased,  the  worship 
of  Israel  bore  in  its  most  conspicuous  features  the  stamp 
of  Babylonian  or  Assyrian  influence.  The  situation  gives 
a  valuable  suggestion  as  to  the  external  conditions  under 
which  religious  and  moral  progress  was  possible  in  the 
kingdom  of  Judah.    It  was  impossible,  as  we  have  just  seen, 


Cii.  I,  §841     CONDITIONS   FAVOURABLE   TO   REFORM  5 

while  foreign  influence  was  irresistibly  strong.  It  was 
equally  impossible  during  the  political  confusion  attending 
the  intrigues  and  revolts  that  marked  the  reigns  of  the 
latest  kings.  The  most  favourable  occasions  were  offered 
when  the  pressure  of  the  suzerain  state  was  withdrawn. 
Such  was  the  case  in  the  later  times  of  Hezekiah  (§  796) 
and  such  also  in  these  days  of  Josiah. 


CHAPTER   II 

THE   GREAT   REFORMATION 

§  842.  Since  no  important  movement  religious  or  polit- 
ical could  be  undertaken  without  the  formal  sanction  and 
direction  of  the  king,  the  reform  which  goes  under  the 
name  of  Josiah,  though  long  prepared  for,  could  not  be  put 
in  operation  until  he  assumed  the  direct  control  of  the  gov- 
ernment. This  reform  aimed  to  be  radical  and  complete. 
It  was,  moreover,  no  mere  fierce  intolerant  iconoclasm. 
It  was  essentially  a  positive  propaganda  resting  on  pro- 
found and  well-considered  views  as  to  the  right  object 
and  mode  of  worship,  and  —  what  was  most  significant  of 
all  —  as  to  the  necessary  association  of  religion  and  morals. 

§  843.  It  was  a  noble  band  of  devoted  servants  of 
Jehovah  who,  after  being  silenced  by  Manasseh  and  Amon, 
reappeared  to  oppose  the  whelming  tide  of  idolatry  and 
corruption  in  Jehovah's  land.  We  know  the  names  of  a 
few  ;  but  they  were  necessarily  the  representatives  of  a 
like-minded  community.  Of  these  the  king's  chief  coun- 
sellor was  Shaphan,  the  state  secretary  or  chancellor,  the 
founder  of  a  worthy  line  of  patriots  (see  2  K.  xxv.  22  ; 
Jer.  xxvi.  24  ;  xxix.  3  ;  xxxvi.  10  ff. ;  xxxix.  14  ;  xl. 
5,  9,  11  ;  xli.  2).  He  had  perhaps  been  the  guardian  of 
the  king's  tender  youth,  and  was  at  any  rate  retained  in 
the  highest  place  in  the  government  on  account  of  his  years 
and  fidelity.  Already  his  son  Ahikani  was  bearing  part 
of  his  burdens  (2  K.  xxii.  12).  Next  to  him  was  Hilkiah 
the  priest,  also  well  advanced  in  life. 

§  844.  Such  were  the  men  whom  we  find  to  have  been 
Josiah's  trusted  counsellors  when  his  public  career  began. 

6 


Ch.  II.  §  846      HOW   REFORM    WAS   FORWARDED  7 

As  in  the  other  reigns  described  in  the  books  of  Kings, 
there  was  here  a  large  background  of  action  and  movement 
which  does  not  appear  in  the  word-pictures  that  serve  for 
historical  records.  The  change  in  dominant  opinion  that 
marks  the  transition  from  Anion  to  Josiah  is  as  significant 
as  it  is  obscure.  Religious  sentiment  especially  was  hard 
to  move,  and  we  must  beware  at  the  outset  of  assuming 
that  among  the  people  at  large  it  was  greatly  moved.  In 
the  very  nature  of  the  case  only  moral  causes  working 
through  social  conditions  were  sufficient  to  bring  about 
such  a  change,1  and  these  are  always  difficult  to  ascertain 
and  to  trace.  The  attitude  of  the  leading  men  is  more 
clearly  revealed,  and  in  the  present  instance  it  is  quite 
fully  described. 

§  845.  Under  what  influences  did  the  chief  men  of 
Josiah's  time  become  so  imbued  with  the  theocratic  spirit  ? 
In  the  time  of  Hezekiah,  Israel's  vantage-ground  was 
hardly  and  slowly  won.  It  was  more  than  lost  in  the 
days  of  Manasseh.  How  was  it  recovered  ?  Negatively, 
by  the  absence  of  noxious  foreign  influence  (§  840  f.). 
From  the  positive  and  more  important  side  a  complete 
answer  is  probably  beyond  reach.  Some  help  may  be 
gained  by  following  up  the  course  of  the  literary  and 
moral  development  of  Israel  ;  and  this  we  shall  attempt 
later  (§  865  ft0.).  Meanwhile  we  can  do  little  more  than 
remind  the  reader  that  the  events  recorded  must  have  had 
an  adequate  cause.  And  we  must  also  repeat  the  reminder 
that  Hebrew  narrative  is  extreme  and  one-sided  from  the 
modern  occidental  point  of  view,  ruder  Manasseh  not 
merely  a  few  devotees  but  a  substantial  party  of  Jehovah 
must  have  kept  their  ranks  unbroken,  so  that  when  the 
favourable  time  arrived  decisive  action  could  be  taken. 
The  circumstances  attending  the  violent  death  of  Anion 

1  Tt  is  scarcely  necessary  to  remind  the  reader  that  a  "good"  reign 
was  much  more  of  a  phenomenon  in  Israel  than  was  an  evil  reign.  The 
king  was  ultimately  the  product  of  the  people,  and  the  popular  religion 
was  mixed  with  heathenism  during  the  whole  duration  of  the  kingdom. 


8  THE    "BOOK   OF   DIRECTION"  Book  IX 

and  thf  succession  of  his  infant  son  are  unknown  ;  but  we 
may  take  for  granted  that  the  theocratic  party  availed 
themselves  of  the  occasion  to  secure  control  of  young 
Josiah.  It  was  the  Jerusalem  priests  alone  who  had  the 
opportunity,  through  organization  and  official  prestige,  to 
gain  such  an  advantage.  And  since,  as  we  have  just 
seen,  a  sort  of  priestly  aristocracy  was  in  control  at  the 
time  of  the  reformation,  we  may  conclude  that  this  power- 
ful body  had  been  brought  into  line  with  a  movement 
which,  though  rudely  checked,  was  neither  dead  nor 
sleeping  during  the  oppression  of  half  a  century. 

§  84(3.  The  story  of  this  movement  as  brought  into 
effect  may  be  written  somewhat  as  follows,  on  the  basis  of 
2  K.  xxii.,  xxiii.  (cf.  2  Chr.  xxxiv.,  xxxv.).  In  the  eigh- 
teenth year  of  Josiah,  when,  as  we  may  assume,  the  serious 
work  of  his  reign  had  been  long  begun,  the  business  of 
repairing  the  temple  was  being  undertaken  after  the  old- 
fashioned  method  of  first  securing  by  free-will  offerings 
the  money  wherewith  to  do  it1  (cf.  2  K.  xii.  4  ff.).  When 
a  considerable  contribution  had  been  made,  Josiah  sent  his 
secretary,  Shaphan,  to  Hilkiah  to  notify  him  that  he  might 
now  count  and  disburse  the  money.  In  the  course  of  the 
interview  Hilkiah  informed  his  visitor  that  he  "had  found 
the  book  of  direction  in  the  house  of  Jehovah."  The 
book  was  handed  to  the  secretary,  who,  having  read  it, 
returned  to  the  king,  gave  an  account  of  his  errand,  and 
having  produced  the  book  read  it  aloud  to  him. 

§  847.  Here  an  explanation  is  needed.  What  was  the 
book  of  direction  ?  and  how  did  it  come  to  be  found  in 

1  The  fact  that  Josiah  repaired  the  defects  in  the  temple  is  of  itself  no 
proof  that  it  had  been  neglected  in  the  preceding  reigns.      As  in  Assyria 

and  Babylonia,  where  every  king  made  it  his  boast  in  his  memoirs  that 
he  repaired  the  temple  of  his  favourite  god.  it  was  doubtless  a  matter  of 
principle  with  the  kings  of  Judah  to  keep  the  sacred  places  in  order. 
Yet  so  much  had  been  added  fur  the  purposes  of  heathenish  worship  that 
it  is  perhaps  fair  to  assume  that  during  the  long  reign  of  Manasseh  less 
attention  had  been  paid  to  the  temple  proper  than  to  certain  chambers 
and  annexes  (2  K.  xxiii.  4.  7,  11  f.),  where,  as  in  the  next  generation 
(§  1183  ff.),  some  of  the  idolatrous  rites  were  observed. 


Ch.  II,  §848       HOW  THE   BOOK   WAS    '•FOUND"  9 

the  temple  ?  The  former  question  is  easily  answered. 
The  book  was  a  new  and  enlarged  edition  of  the  "Book 
of  the  Covenant  "  (§  920,  943  f.)  prepared  for  the  need  of 
the  times.  It  comprises  substantially  the  legal  portion 
of  Deuteronomy  (chs.  xii.-xxvi.  j,  to  which  the  hortatory 
preface  (chs.  v.-xi.)  was  probably  added  somewhat  later. 
This  legislative  code  is  thoroughly  interspersed  with  argu- 
ments and  appeals  for  a  purer  faith,  a  stricter  ritual,  and 
a  more  spiritual  habit  of  life.1  The  second  question  has 
perhaps  created  more  serious  difficulty  of  another  kind,  the 
ground  of  which  is  that  the  book,  being  almost  or  quite  a 
contemporary  production,  could  scarcely  have  been  lost  in 
the  temple.  The  difficulty  is  in  part  removed  when  we  ob- 
serve that  the  narrative  says  nothing  of  the  book  having 
been  lost.  All  that  is  necessarily  implied  (xxii.  8,  13)  is 
that  Ililkiah  lighted  in  some  way  upon  the  book.2  What 
is  harder  to  explain  is  the  definite  phrase  "the  book  of 
direction,"  which  points  to  some  book  known  as  at  one 
time  existing,  and  from  which,  since  Josiah  was  apparently 
unaware  of  its  contents,  it  may  be  inferred  that  the  book 
had  not  been  in  circulation  among  his  contemporaries. 

§  848.  The  probable  explanation  is  that  the  former 
'•  law-book,"  which  wc  now  know  as  the  first  "  Book  of 
the  Covenant,"  and  whose  existence  was  a  matter  of  noto- 
riety in  Israel,  had  never  been  in  force  as  a  statute-book, 

1  Perhaps  the  whole  of  chs.  i.-xi.  was  added  by  the  same  hand,  i.-iv. 
40  being  a  review  of  the  history  of  Israel  from  the  Exodus  to  the  settle- 
ment east  of  the  Jordan,  placed  in  the  month  of  Muses  just,  before  bis 
death,  followed  by  a  solemn  appeal  to  serve  and  obey  Jehovah.  Ch. 
xxviii.  was  probably  the  original  conclusion  of  xii.-xxvi..  ch.  xxvii.  having 
been  interpolated  t<>  conned  its  subject  (the  curses  and  blessings  on  Ebal 
and  Gerizim)  with  the  similar  ideas  of  ch.  xxviii.  Chs.  xxix.  and  xxx.  are 
apparently  a  hortatory  continuation  of  xii.-xxvi ;  xxviii.  by  the  same  hand 
as  i.-xi.  Chs.  xxxi.-xxxiv.  are  from  several  sources,  and  did  not  belong 
to  tic  older  Deuteronomy. 

-  The  word  (nxd)  in  all  the  Semitic  languages  has  the  same  meaning  of 
attaining  or  acquiring.  For  the  Hebrew  cf.  Gen.  x.wi.  1l'  ;  ii  Sam.  xx.  6. 
our  English  find  is  identical  with  Latin peto-  The  meaning  of  invenire  is 
similarly  developed. 


10  CONSTERNATION   AND   INQUIRY  Book  IX 

and  had  been  almost  forgotten,  kept  as  it  was  during  the 
unsympathetic  regime  of  Manasseh  in  the  hands  of  a  small 
theocratic  circle ;  and  that  it  was  now  reproduced  in  an 
expanded  form,  with  the  hortatory  and  minatory  additions 
which  greatly  impressed  King  Josiah.  The  work  of  pre- 
paring the  book  having  been  done  under  priestly  auspices 
and  perhaps  within  the  precincts  of  the  temple  itself,  the 
volume  might  very  well  have  been  "found  where  it  was  not 
lost."  That  there  was  a  certain  amount  of  conscientious 
finesse  in  the  business  is,  however,  quite  apparent,  though 
in  this  quality  it  has  been  outclassed  by  many  of  the 
ecclesiastical  intrigues  of  our  better  Christian  times. 

§  849.  To  realize  the  effect  of  the  reading  of  the  book 
upon  the  susceptible  soul  of  Josiah  we  must  read  it  our- 
selves, that  is,  read  over  Deut.  xii.-xxvi.,  and  imagine  what 
a  pious  king  in  old  Jerusalem  must  have  felt  in  hearing 
for  the  first  time  a  divine  revelation  of  such  tremendous 
import.  The  book  contained  explicit  directions  as  to 
worship  and  conduct,  and  as  the  penalty  for  national 
disobedience  decreed  the  loss  of  home  and  country,  the  sen- 
tence of  the  offenders  was  cumulative.  For  many  genera- 
tions warnings  and  precepts  had  been  alike  neglected,  and 
when  the  day  of  doom  should  come,  the  sins  of  the  fathers 
also  would  be  visited  upon  the  children.  Could  the  doom 
be  averted  by  speedy  and  complete  obedience  and  penitence? 

§  850.  Hilkiah  himself  was  summoned  and  appealed 
to.  He  was  unable  or  unwilling  to  answer.  A  commis- 
sion of  inquiry  was  then  appointed  by  the  king,  of  which 
Hilkiah  was  the  head,  and  which  besides  included  the  state 
secretary  Shaphan  and  his  son  Ahikam,  Achbor,  one  of 
the  royal  council,  and  Asaiah,  "the  king's  servant."1  To 
them  the  charge  was  given :  "  Go  and  inquire  of  Jeho- 
vah on  my  behalf  and  on  behalf  of  the  people  and  on 

1  For  this  peculiar  title  see  Stade,  GVI.  I,  650,  and  the  illustration 
inscribed  there  and  in  Benzinger,  HA.  p.  258  (cf.  p.  310).  Stade's  con- 
jecture that  the  chief  of  the  eunuchs  is  meant  is  unnecessary.  The  officer 
had  apparently  to  attend  to  the  special  personal  business  of  the  king,  while 
the  other  officials  were  servants  of  the  state. 


Ch.  II,  §  851  ANSWER   OF   THE   ORACLE  11 

behalf  of  all  Judah,  concerning  the  words  of  this  book  that 
has  been  found ;  for  great  is  the  wrath  of  Jehovah  that 
has  been  kindled  against  us,  because  our  fathers  have  not 
obeyed  the  words  of  this  book,  to  do  what  has  been  enjoined 
upon  us  "  (xxii.  13). 

§  851.  The  deputation,  under  the  lead  of  Hilkiah,  sought 
a  prophetic  not  a  priestly  oracle  (xxii.  14).  This  was  the 
fitting  course  in  every  way,  particularly  in  an  emergency, 
and  when  the  interests  of  the  community  were  at  stake 
(cf.  §  589  and  note).  Resort  was  had,  however,  not  to  a 
prophet,  but  to  a  prophetess  named  Huldah,  wife  of  the 
keeper  of  the  wardrobe.  She  is  the  only  prophetess  of 
the  Old  Testament  belonging  to  the  higher  prophetic  era,1 
when  "direction"  implied  a  differentiation  of  the  spirit- 
ual from  the  civil  or  judicial  function.2  The  action  was 
strictly  regular.  It  lias  been  asked  why  some  outstand- 
ing prophet  like  Jeremiah  was  not  appealed  to.  But  the 
question  implies  a  misconception  of  the  function  of  the 
great  prophets  of  the  Old  Testament.  They  did  not  be- 
long to  the  prophetic  guilds,  nor  had  they  anything  to 
do  with  the  "  directing  "  or  with  the  official  oracles,  while 
Huldah  was  a  member  of  an  inner  circle  of  professionals 
(§  1066).  Her  answer  as  far  as  it  is  reported  was  wholly 
in  accord  with  the  movement  for  reform.     It  was  to  the 

1  Of  Noadiah  (Neh.  vi.  14)  we  know  only  the  name.  The  context 
would  suggest  that  she  was  a  degenerate. 

2  A  development  from  the  lower  rudimentary  function  of  Miriam  and 
Deborah.  Comp.  Professor  I.  J.  Peritz,  "  Woman  in  the  ancient  Hebrew 
cult."  in  Journal  of  Biblical  Literature,  1898,  p.  142  ff.  The  subject  is 
still  somewhat  obscure,  but  there  seems  to  be  no  reason  why  we  should 
make  the  prophetess  a  development  independent  of  the  prophet.  Roth 
really  belonged  to  one  system,  but  the  prophetess  was  a  rarer  functionary 
and  therefore  all  the  more  suited  for  appeal  in  a  critical  time,  as  carrying 
exceptional  inspiration.  Moreover,  we  can  hardly  exclude  the  idea  that, 
as  in  the  case  of  the  Pythia,  the  Sibyl,  the  Witch  of  Endor,  and  others, 
the  power  of  divination  was  ascribed  to  woman  when  she  assumed  the 
prophetic  rdle,  cf.  Ez.  xiii.  17  ff.  (§  1 100).  That  Huldah  was  a  member  of 
the  professional  circle  is  made  still  more  clear  by  the  fact  that  her  place 
of  residence  is  specially  mentioned,  since  the  professions  occupied  sev- 
erally streets  or  quarters  of  the  city  by  themselves   (cf.  Jer.  xxxvii.  21). 


12  AIMS   OF   THE    REFORM  Book  IX 

effect  that  the  penalty  annexed  to  disobedience  would 
certainly  be  inflicted,  but  not  in  Josiah's  day.  since  he  had 
humbled  himself  before  Jehovah  ( xxii.  14-20). * 

§  852.  Josiah  immediately  called  a  general  assembly 
of  the  people  at  Jerusalem,  their  elders  and  the  orders  of 
priests  and  prophets  taking  the  responsible  places  as  rep- 
resentatives. To  them  he  read  the  book,  and  bound  him- 
self and  them  by  a  solemn  oath  and  covenant  to  obey  its 
precepts  and  carry  out  its  requirements  (2  K.  xxiii.  1-3). 
The  fulfilment  of  this  engagement  was  the  great  work  of 
reform. 

§  853.  Since  our  present  concern  is  with  the  reform  as 
it  affected  the  policy  of  the  kingdom  and  the  condition  of 
the  people  as  a  whole,  it  will  suffice  to  point  out  in  a  gen- 
eral way  its  purpose  as  bearing  (1)  upon  the  mode  and 
form.  (2)  upon  the  place,  of  worship.  As  to  the  first 
object,  the  reformers  were  to  extirpate  the  foreign  non- 
Israelitish  rites  and  observances,  and  to  rid  the  worship 
of  Jehovah  of  everything  sensuous  and  material.  As  to 
the  second,  no  place  of  worship  was  to  be  tolerated  except 
the  temple  at  Jerusalem.  That  tins  work  was  associ- 
ated with  an  ancient  kk  law-book,"  revised,  enlarged,  and 
adapted  to  present  occasions,  grew  out  of  the  fact  that  it 
was  intended  to  vindicate,  reestablish,  and  develop  what- 
ever in  belief  and  practice  was  rooted  in  the  truest  faith 
and  teaching  of  Israel's  past  history. 

§  854.  The  religious  abuses  to  be  rooted  out  may  be 
grouped  as  follows  :  (1)  The  unspiritual  worship  of 
Jehovah.  The  adoration  of  Jehovah  in  a  symbolic  mate- 
rial form  was   never  so   great   a   danger   in   Judah  as  in 

1  Huklah  concluded  by  saying  (v.  20)  that  Josiah  should  be  gathered  to 
bis  tombs  i.e.  added  to  those  already  in  the  family  tombs,  cf.  Job  xvii.  1) 
in  peace.  On  this  point  her  oracular  inspiration  failed.  Stade  (GVI.  I, 
652  thinks  that  the  oracle,  as  we  have  it,  is  a  substitute  for  the 
original,  which  must  have  been  a  command  to  go  on  with  the  practical 
fulfilment  of  the  injunctions  of  the  book.  The  whole  of  the  answer  may 
not  be  given  in  the  text,  though  what  is  given  has  the  air  of  being 
expanded  and  elaborated. 


Ch.  II,  §855  IDOLATRY   PURE    AND   MIXED  13 

Israel.  Idolatrous  worship  of  Jehovah  in  the  strict  sense 
perhaps  never  existed  in  Jerusalem.  Indeed,  the  only 
public  authorized  image  appears  to  have  been  the  brazen 
serpent  destroyed  by  Hezekiah  (2  K.  xviii.  4).  But  it 
was  inevitable  that  the  rites  of  Jehovah  in  an  unspiritual 
age  should  degenerate  by  association  with  any  one  of  the 
various  popular  idolatrous  symbols,  from  the  compara- 
tively innocent  stone-pillars,  with  their  traditional  sug- 
gestion of  the  presence  of  the  deity,  and  the  asheras  or 
conventionalized  sacred  trees  beside  the  altar  of  Jehovah, 
to  the  grosser  symbols  of  imported  foreign  cults.  The 
radical  remedy  was  the  obliteration  of  all  outward  sym- 
bols or  accompaniments  of  worship  according  to  the  direc- 
tion of  Deuteronomy  (xii.  3  ;  xvi.  21  f.)  ;  and  such  was 
the  work  of  the  reformation  (2  K.  xxiii.  14  f.). 

§  855.  (2)  There  was  the  worship  of  old  Canaanitic 
deities.  This  was  one  of  the  most  noxious  and  persistent 
of  unlawful  cults.  Not  that  any  distinct  personal  Baal  was 
adored  in  Judah  after  the  downfall  of  Athaliah  and  her 
Phoenician  ritual  (2  K.  xi.).  It  was  rather  the  intrusive 
revival  in  times  of  laxness  and  infidelity  of  the  cults  of 
the  local  deities,  the  "baals"  of  the  several  cities  or 
sacred  places  of  ancient  Canaan.  The  syncretism  of 
Jehovah  and  Baal  worship  was  aggravated  by  the  fact 
that  Jehovah  was  naturally  and  innocently  called  the 
"  Baal "  or  "  Lord  "  of  his  people.  Yet  it  seems  open  to 
question  whether  there  was  not  at  least  in  Jerusalem  a 
generalizing  of  the  old  local  Baal  worship  in  one  collec- 
tive image  which  was  abolished  in  this  reform  by  Josiah 
(2  K.  xxiii.  4).  There  had  been  also  the  cult  of  the 
Phoenician  Ashtoreth  (Astarte)  introduced  by  Solomon. 
the  last  trace  of  which  was  now  effaced  by  Josiab  along 
with  the  former  shrines  of  Chemosh  of  Moab  ami  Milcom 
of  Amnion1  (xxiii.  13).      It  was  the  "high   places*'  that 

1  A  pantheon  was  the  natural  accompanimenl  of  the  little  world- 
monarchy  of  poor  Solomon.  That  it  was  revived  under  Manasseh  Indicates 
the  inveterate  inclination  of  old  Israel  to  diverse  worship  (see  Deut.  xiii.)- 


14  BABYLONIAN   MODES   OF   WORSHIP  Book  IX 

particularly  promoted  all  such  degradation  of  the  service 
of  Jehovah.  To  the  category  of  Canaanitic  deities  must 
be  assigned  the  Molech  (or  more  properly  MelecK)  to 
whom  children  were  offered  by  fire  in  the  time  of  Manas- 
seh  (2  K.  xxi.  6  ;  cf.  Mic.  vi.  7).  The  mound  of  Tophet 
in  the  valley  of  Hinnom  where  this  most  horrible  of  rites 
was  practised  was  destroyed  by  Josiah  (2  K.  xxiii.  10). 
For  prohibitions  in  the  " law-book"  see  Deut.  xii.  29-31; 
xviii.  10. 

§  856.  (3)  More  imposing  and  more  influential  among 
the  ruling  classes  were  the  special  modes  of  worship  bor- 
rowed from  Assyria  and  Babylonia  (§  841).  What  had 
been  introduced  by  Ahaz  in  consequence  of  his  subjection 
to  his  Assyrian  patron  (§  640)  was  now  supplemented  by 
a  complete  priestly  service.  There  were  utensils  for 
sacrifice  to  the  host  of  heaven  in  the  temple  itself,  which 
were  burned  by  Josiah  along  with  other  idolatrous  appli- 
ances on  the  bottom  flats  of  the  Kidron  valley  (2  K. 
xxiii.  4).  There  were  priests  who  burned  incense  to  the 
sun  and  the  moon,  and  the  signs  of  the  Zodiac,  and  all  the 
host  of  heaven  (Deut.  xvii.  2-7),  who  were  got  rid  of  by 
Josiah  (xxiii.  5  ;  cf.  xxi.  3  ;  Jer.  viii.  2).  There  were 
the  horses  which  the  kings  of  Judah  had  dedicated  to  the 
"  Sun,"  and  to  which  a  place  had  been  assigned  on  the 
west  side  of  the  temple  (cf.  1  Chr.  xxvi.  18),  and  which 
were  now  removed  by  Josiah,  who  at  the  same  time 
burned  the  chariots  of  the  sun  with  fire  (xxiii.  11). 
There  was  on  the  roof  of  the  cupola  of  Ahaz  an  astro- 
logical observatory  which  Josiah  broke  to  pieces  (xxiii.  12). 
Add  to  these  the  adoration  of  the  "  Queen  of  Heaven," 
who  was  made  the  consort  of  Jehovah x  (see  Jer.  vii.  18), 


1  In  the  same  way  as  the  Babylonian  Ann,  the  highest  heaven-god, 
■was  provided  with  a  consort  Anat  (Jastrow,  RBA.  p.  153)  ;  compare  Bel 
and  Bclit  ('•  Beltis").  The  impersonal,  indefinite  character  of  the  west- 
ern or  Canaanitic  Baal  is  illustrated  by  the  fact  that  there  was  no  corre- 
sponding feminine  deity,  Ashtoreth  (Babyl.  Ishtar)  being  a  mere  female 
analogue  and  not  a  companion  or  mate. 


Ch.  II,  §  839      LICENTIOUSNESS   AND   SUPERSTITION  15 

a  cult  which  persisted  even  to  the  time  of  the  Captivity 
(Jer.  xliv.  17  ff.). 

§  857.  (4)  The  most  virulent  of  the  evil  practices  of 
the  time,  in  large  measure  promoted  by  a  perverted  re- 
ligious feeling  and  even  made  a  religious  institution,  was 
sexual  indulgence,  the  universal  attendant  upon  nature  wor- 
ship in  the  ancient  East  (§  1188  f.,  1330  ff.)-  The  minis- 
ters of  these  obscene  rites  within  the  very  precincts  of  the 
temple  were  expelled  by  Josiah,  and  their  apartments  were 
razed  to  the  ground  (2  K.  xxiii.  7  ;  cf.  Deut.xxiii.  17  f.). 

§  858.  (5)  Finally  there  were  superstitious  beliefs  and 
customs,  partly  native  to  the  soil,  partly  inherited  from 
the  old  nomadic  life  of  Israel,  and  partly  imported  from 
abroad  —  above  all  from  Babylonia,  where  sorcery  and 
magic  had  long  been  a  science  and  an  art  (cf.  Isa.  xlvii.  ; 
§  1329).  All  such  usages  and  their  professors  Josiah  put 
away,  "  that  he  might  make  good  the  words  of  direction 
which  were  written  in  the  book  that  Hilkiah  the  priest 
found  in  the  house  of  Jehovah"  (2  K.  xxiii.  24;  cf.  Deut. 
xviii.  10-14).  The  object  of  divination  and  necromancy 
was  to  ascertain  the  will  of  the  higher  powers.  Instead 
of  this  the  will  of  Jehovah  was  to  be  followed  and  might 
be  ascertained.  For  this  end  was  issued  the  great  procla- 
mation of  the  prophetic  word,  of  its  authenticity  and  its 
sufficiency  (Deut.  xviii.  15  ff.). 

§  859.  The  foregoing  may  suffice  as  a  representation 
of  the  religious  evils  and  abuses  which  abounded  in  the 
early  days  of  Josiah  and  in  those  of  his  predecessors. 
It  was  characteristic  of  this  great  movement  that  it  was 
the  first  attempt  on  a  large  scale  to  remove  not  only 
religious  but  moral  evils,  and  that  on  the  ground  that 
the  one  class  was  necessarily  involved  or  rather  included 
in  the  other.  In  the  account  of  the  reform  in  Kings  (cf. 
2  Chr.  xxxiv.  f.)  no  mention  is  made  of  the  purification 
of  justice  and  of  the  redress  of  social  wrongs.  For  this  we 
must  turn  to  the  "  book  of  direction,"  which  was  incident- 
ally and  yet  virtually  a  hand-book  of  ethics  for  the  people 


1G  ABOLITION   OF   LOCAL   SHRINES  Book  IX 

of  Jehovah.  Besides  inculcating  justice  in  all  the  walks 
of  life,  it  breathes  a  lofty  spirit  of  humanity  and  of  regard 
for  the  needy,  the  suffering,  and  the  oppressed.  Save 
on  the  one  point  of  intolerance  toward  the  enemies  of 
Jehovah,  it  stands  in  these  aspects  almost  upon  a  New 
.Testament  level.  The  central  and  controlling  idea  in 
the  book  is,  however,  that  which  was  asserted  in  the 
reforms  of  Josiah,  the  doing  away  with  all  modes  of  false 
worship,  and  the  exclusive  establishment  of  a  spiritual 
worship  of  Jehovah.  In  other  words,  the  book  is  pri- 
marily and  fundamentally  formal  and  ritualistic. 

§  860.  To  secure  this  great  end,  however,  it  was  not 
enough  that  all  the  opposing  or  competing  modes  and 
forms  of  worship  should  be  prohibited  and  abolished. 
Image-breaking  would  not  cure  idolatry.  Idolatry  was 
mainly  fostered  not  by  image-worship,  but  by  the  con- 
ception of  the  local  manifestations  of  Jehovah.  Idolatry 
is  inevitable  if  God  exists  or  appears  in  many  forms.  In 
other  words,  the  unity  of  God  secures  his  spirituality. 
In  every  local  shrine  or  "  high  place"  (bdma)  there  were, 
to  be  sure,  seductions  to  mixed  or  debased  forms  of  wor- 
ship. That  was  a  great  evil,  but  by  care  and  watchful- 
ness it  might  be  kept  down.  What  could  not  be 
quenched  in  the  popular  mind  was  the  persuasion  that 
every  shrine  had  its  own  type  or  manifestation  of 
Jehovah.  The  result  was  the  prevalence  of  practical 
polytheism  with  its  attendant  symbolism  and  image-wor- 
ship. Hence  the  revolutionary  idea  of  abolishing  all 
the  high  places,  except  the  central  shrine  of  Jerusalem.1 
The  attempt  had  been  made  by  Hezekiah,  but  it  failed, 

1  This  idea  was  perhaps  tirst  suggested  by  Isaiah,  the  prophet  of  "  Zion." 
But  Hezekiah,  if  we  may  judge  from  Isaiah's  own  teaching,  probably 
did  m it  attempt  the  thorough-going  abolition  of  local  worship  aimed  at 
by  Josiah  (cf.  Isa.  xix.  10.  21,  and  i.  29).  At  any  rate  the  age  was 
not  then  ripe  for  the  revolution,  though  outward  circumstances  were 
favourable.  The  difference  between  the  reform  of  Hezekiah  and  of 
Josiah  is  discussed  by  "W.  R.  Smith,  OTJC.'2  p.  355  ff.,  and  more  skepti- 
cally by  Smend,  ATK.  p.  268  f. 


Ca.  II,  §  862  CENTRALIZING   OF   WORSHIP  17 

iii  spite  of  the  prestige  that  came  to  Jerusalem  through 
its  great  deliverance  (§  796).  The  idea,  however,  with 
the  purpose  was  not  extinguished.  It  worked  in  the 
faithful  theocratic  part}*  all  through  the  dark  days  of 
Manasseh  and  Anion.  It  naturally  proved  a  chief  mo- 
tive of  Deuteronomy,  placed  at  the  opening  of  the  "  law- 
book "  (Deut.  xii.  1-28),  repeated  and  reiterated  through- 
out the  work,  and  realized  in  the  active  measures  of  Josiah. 

§  861.  Hand  in  hand  with  the  zeal  of  the  reformers  for 
the  purity  of  Jehovah's  worship  went  their  desire  for  the 
aggrandizement  and  sanctity  of  Jerusalem  as  the  exclu- 
sive seat  of  that  worship.  Centralization  was  for  Israel 
as  desirable  and  as  inevitable  in  the  religious  as  in  the 
political  sphere.  But  for  a  religion  such  as  that  of  Jehovah 
it  was  far  more  difficult  to  realize.  For  it  was  in  Jeru- 
salem itself  that  the  gravest  obstacles  to  purity  of  wor- 
ship were  found,  as  the  account  of  the  attempted  reform 
will  show  (2  K.  xxiii.  4  ft".).  Thereafter,  however, 
Judah  was  more  and  more  absorbed  in  Jerusalem,  for 
good  or  for  evil. 

§  862.  Two  far-reaching  measures  in  the  line  of  the 
general  purpose  of  the  reform  contributed  to  the  central- 
izing movement.  One  of  these  was  the  enhanced  religious 
value  and  dignity  given  to  the  great  annual  feasts :  the 
feast  of  unleavened  bread,  the  feast  of  weeks,  and  the  feast 
of  ingathering.  These  were  agricultural  feasts,  long 
cherished  among  the  people  as  celebrations  of  the  chief 
events  of  the  year,  the  first  attending  the  barley  harvest, 
the  second  the  wheat  harvest,  and  the  third  the  fruit  har- 
vest. These  had  always  a  religious  character,  for  every 
feast  was  a  religious  service  (§  499).  J >nt  if  they  could 
be  wholly  detached  from  traditional  half-heathen  associa- 
tions with  the  powers  and  processes  of  nature,  they 
might  be  made  to  subserve  instead  of  impairing  the  true 
worship  of  Jehovah.  Hence  it  was  ordained  tli;it  they 
should  be  held  only  in  Jerusalem  at  the  temple.  Bach 
of  them,  moreover,  was  invested  with  a  deeper  and  higher 
« 


18  FEASTS   AND   PRIESTS  Book  IX 

religious  meaning.  The  first  and  the  greatest  of  them 
at  the  beginning  of  the  year  was  especially  honoured  and 
indeed  transfigured  for  all  coming  ages.  With  it  was 
united  the  closely  following  ceremony  of  the  offering  of 
the  firstlings  of  the  flock  born  in  the  springtime.  Hence 
the  full  significance  of  the  combined  feast  of  unleavened 
bread  and  the  passover.  The  celebration  of  this  festival 
was  made  the  occasion  of  the  ratification  of  the  work  of 
reform  ;  "  and  the  king  commanded  all  the  people,  saying, 
Keep  the  passover  unto  Jehovah  your  God,  as  it  is  writ- 
ten in  the  book  of  the  covenant "  (2  K.  xxiii.  21  ;  cf. 
Dent.  xvi.  1-17). 

§  863.  Yet  another  decisive  movement  marked  this 
momentous  religious  epoch.  The  Levites  had  long  been 
the  proper  holders  of  the  priestly  office,  though  not  always 
the  only  sacrificers  (Jud.  xvii.  5  ff.  ;  2  Sam.  xv.  24),  for 
sacrifices  could  be  offered  by  a  man  of  any  tribe,  as  by  a 
house-father  for  his  household,  or  by  a  king  for  his  people. 
But  now  the  order  of  the  priesthood  was  made  strict  and 
exclusive  :  only  the  descendants  of  Levi  could  be  priests, 
and  all  the  members  of  the  tribe  were  to  have  part  in  the 
office  (Deut.  xviii.  Iff.).  Now  as  all  the  sacrifices  were 
to  be  performed  at  the  sanctuary  in  Jerusalem,  this  priestly 
system  came  to  minister  to  the  greater  glory  of  the  cen- 
tral shrine,  having  all  the  political  force  of  a  close  corpora- 
tion and  all  the  religious  prestige  of  a  divine  institution. 

§  804.  Such  was  the  great  Reform  in  intent  and  war- 
rant. What  it  was  in  effect  we  shall  see  somewhat  later 
(§  1019  ff.).  It  behooves  us  now  to  inquire  into  the 
history  of  the  ideas  and  principles  upon  which  it  was 
based.  This  inquiry  will  lead  us  (1)  to  trace  the  growth 
and  estimate  the  character  of  the  literature  which  led 
up  to  Deuteronomy ;  and  (2)  to  follow  the  progress  of 
moral  and  religious  feeling  and  practice  up  to  the  era  of 
the  Reformation. 


CHAPTER   III 

DEUTERONOMY   AND   THE    HEBREW   LITERATURE 

§  865.  Deuteronomy  was  not  the  work  of  a  day  or  a 
year.  Much  less  was  it  the  unaided  work  of  those  who 
composed  it.  Its  roots  were  struck  deep  and  wide  into 
the  moral  and  religious  history  of  Israel.  In  substance, 
far  more  than  in  form,  it  is  an  exhibition  of  the  develop- 
ment of  the  national  religious  thought  and  life.  It  is, 
moreover,  so  comprehensive  and  far-reaching  as  to  be  cen- 
tral and  fundamental  for  the  Old  Testament  Revelation. 
It  is  indeed  itself  a  perpetual  revelation,  a  challenge  to 
each  succeeding  age  to  consider  the  depth  and  breadth 
and  length  of  the  process  of  the  religious  education  of  the 
race,  as  startling  to  each  new  inquirer  as  it  was  to  Josiah 
and  his  ministers.  As  the  counterpart  of  the  obscure  yet 
active  and  affluent  historical  period  in  which  it  saw  the 
light,  we  must  resort  to  it  if  we  would  find  the  key  to  the 
literature  of  ancient  Israel.  From  the  point  of  view  of 
literary  history,  it  is  of  special  importance  because  it  is 
essentially  an  expansion  and  adaptation  of  earlier  docu- 
ments (§  043  if.),  and  also  because  the  same  school  of 
reformers  and  writers  that  produced  it  continued  their 
work  in  editing  the  earlier  historical  books  of  the  Old 
Testament,  thus  giving  form  and  colour  to  a  great  portion 
of  the  sacred  writings. 

§  866.  We  are  thus  at  length  in  a  position  to  review 
the  earlier  literature  of  the  Hebrew  people.  It  is  not  our 
province  to  give  an  analysis  of  the  writings  which  com- 
prise this  literature.      For  this  we  must  refer  the  reader 

19 


20  RESUME   OF   LITERARY    PROGRESS  Book   IX 

to  modern  works  too  well  known  to  require  special  men- 
tion. Still  less  are  we  called  upon  to  settle  the  questions 
of  date,  authorship,  and  composition  of  the  sacred  docu- 
ments whose  discussion  forms  the  staple  of  present-day 
criticism  of  the  Old  Testament.  Fortunately,  there  is 
now  general  agreement  among  scholars  as  to  at  least  the 
principal  components  of  the  body  of  the  literature  which 
was  in  the  possession  of  the  Hebrews  up  to  the  end  of 
the  seventh  century  B.C.  It  is  more  properly  the  duty  of 
the  historian  to  show  how  the  literature  of  the  several 
epochs  of  the  people's  history  is  an  expression  of  the 
national  life,  and  illustrates  its  progress  and  vicissitudes. 
So  far  as  most  of  the  prophetic  writings  are  concerned,  we 
have  been  able,  as  we  have  been  compelled,  to  do  this  from 
the  beginning.  They  are,  in  fact,  contemporary  histori- 
cal documents  indispensable  to  the  understanding  of  their 
times.  But  other  literary  movements,  including,  strangely 
enough,  much  of  the  so-called  historical  narrative,  do  not 
fit  in  so  readily  with  the  ascertainable  course  of  history. 
Their  relations  to  one  another  and  to  the  Old  Testament 
as  a  whole  cannot  be  understood  until  we  reach  some 
turning-point  in  the  nation's  career  with  some  great  clari- 
fying work  as  its  literary  record.  Such  a  period  is  that 
of  Manasseh  and  Josiah,  and  such  a  work  is  Deuteronomy. 
§  867.  In  a  sense  Israel  as  a  nation  was  never  without 
a  literature.  From  a  time  at  least  as  early  as  the  Exodus 
heroic  poems  and  popular  traditions  were  in  circulation. 
Historical  records  were  not  made  till  the  time  of  the  king- 
dom ;  and  it  was  late  in  monarchical  times  before  these 
were  systematically  compiled.  All  the  literature  that 
could  serve  the  purposes  of  a  moral  movement  was  for 
ages  based  upon  the  principles  announced  by  Moses.  It 
is  to  these  principles  that  we  must  trace  the  development 
of  a  code  of  morals  resting  upon  the  nature  and  the  claims 
of  Jehovah,  and  of  a  system  of  civil  law  in  conformity 
therewith.  But  such  productions  could  not  have  been 
highly  elaborated  apart  from  a  society  prepared  to  receive 


Ch.  Ill,  §  8G8        DIFFICULTIES   OF   THE    STUDY  21 

them  and  to  put  them  in  practice.  Such  a  society  was 
first  developed  through  the  ministry  of  the  prophets.  Yet 
the  prophetic  writings  did  not  wholly  precede  this  moral  and 
legal  literature  ;  for  the  preaching  prophets  had  a  literary 
influence  before  the  literary  prophets  began  their  work. 
Such  influence  was  mainly  exerted  upon  the  priestly 
order,  out  of  whose  ranks  came  some  of  the  prophets. 
Under  its  auspices  much  of  the  book  of  Deuteronomy 
was  gradually  compiled  and  collated  before  its  publica- 
tion as  a  separate  work  ;  for  the  priests  were  practi- 
cally concerned  in  the  preservation  of  their  religion  as  a 
system,  and  for  this  a  ceremonial,  judicial,  and  ethical 
code  was  indispensable.  What  was  essentially  new  and 
original  had  come,  however,  from  Amos  and  his  school, 
and  the  era  of  the  spiritual  empire  of  Israel  dates  from  the 
apostle  of  Tekoa,  in  whose  hands  prophecy  first  took  the 
form  of  literature. 

§  868.  The  difficulties  of  writing  a  history  of  Hebrew 
literature1  are  very  great.  Some  of  them  are  :  the  length 
of  time  covered  by  the  production  of  the  literature  ;  the 
obscurity  surrounding  the  lives  and  persons  of  the  authors  ; 
the  lack  of  obvious  relation  between  much  of  the  literature 
and  any  known  period  of  the  nation's  career  ;  our  imper- 
fect knowledge  of  much  of  the  inner  and  outer  history  of 
the  people  ;  the  intellectual  interval  between  modern 
critics  and  ancient  Hebraic  writers  and  speakers,  and  still 
more  that  between  the  authors  and  the  later  Jewish  edi- 
tors and  compilers  ;  the  lack  of  literary  self-consciousness 
on  the  part  of  the  authors,  and  their  anonymousness;  theii 
ignoring  of  second  causes  and  human  agencies,  leading 


1  Apart  from  the  suggestions  and  germinal  ideas  found  in  the  epoch- 
making  works  on  the  religion  and  history  of  Israel  the  most  directly 

instructive  writings  OH  the  literary  history  of  the  Old  Testament  are  W. 
R.  Smith's  OTJC,  Stade's  GVL,  Book  I,  and  Kautzsch's  Abriss  der 
Geschichte  des  alttest.  Schrifttums,  appended  to  ATI!.,  and  now  trans- 
lated intu  English.  An  outline  of  recent  conclusions  is  given  in  Bennett, 
Primer  of  the  Bible  (1*'.'7 1,  very  handy,  bul  almost  too  concise. 


22  PRINCIPLES  OF   LITERARY    STUDY  Book  IX 

them  to  omit  from  their  chronicle  subordinate  events  and 
occasions  ;  their  dynamical  rather  than  chronological  con- 
ception of  the  process  of  history,  making  it  natural  for 
them  to  transfer  the  thoughts  of  one  age  or  person  to 
another  with  which  they  were  providentially  associated  ; 
their  imperfect  mechanical  methods  and  appliances,  leading 
to  errors  of  omission,  addition,  or  transposition,  and  occa- 
sioning the  combination  of  separate  compositions  on  one 
roll  of  manuscript  ;  uncritical  theories  and  principles  of 
later  scribes  and  compilers,  creating  confusion  in  the 
arrangement  of  the  books. 

§  869.  To  understand  the  words  and  thoughts  of 
another  age  or  people  than  our  own,  we  need  knowledge 
and  intellectual  sympathy.  Modern  criticism  seeks  the 
one  while  it  cultivates  the  other.  Not  content  with  learn- 
ing what  preceding  generations  have  thought  and  asserted 
about  the  Old  Testament  writings,  we  examine  the  sources 
themselves  directly,  in  the  light  of  contemporary  monu- 
ments, and  with  the  established  methods  of  historical 
research  according  to  the  well-ascertained  laws  of  mental 
and  moral,  political  and  social  evolution.  Some  of  the 
most  serious  of  the  above-named  difficulties  may  thus 
be  overcome  as  soon  as  we  have  learned  sufficiently  the 
genius  and  bent  of  the  people,  and  the  character  of  their 
changing,  as  well  as  their  permanent  environment.  Some 
things  we  may  be  sure  of  in  their  literary  history  as  char- 
acterizing the  early  stages  of  the  development  of  all 
civilized  ancient  nations  ;  some  other  things  we  may  infer 
from  the  knowledge  to  be  gained  of  their  own  peculiar 
institutions.  Certain  factors  conditioning  the  course  of 
their  literature  stand  out  as  of  supreme  importance.  Such 
are  the  spirit  and  habit  of  their  nomadic  life  and  tribalism  ; 
their  ancestral  and  primitive  memories  and  traditions ; 
their  fortunes  in  war  and  migration  ;  their  religious  insti- 
tutions, especially  the  priesthood  and  prophecy,  and  above 
all  the  character  of  their  God  or  gods  ;  the  religious  and 
political  habits  and  disposition  of  the   influential   neigh- 


Cn.  Ill,  §  871      LITERARY   CRITICISM   AND   HISTORY  23 

bouring  peoples  ;  the  character  and  aims  of  parties  or 
communities  within  the  nation  ;  the  principles  and  beliefs 
of  the  party  or  community  which  became  the  true  or  sur- 
viving Israel  within  Israel. 

§  870.  It  would  thus  appear  that  we  have  to  interpret 
the  Old  Testament  both  as  a  history  and  as  a  literature. 
Literary  criticism  is  an  adjunct  and  instrument,  almost 
a  sub-department,  of  historical  research,  because  (1)  the 
literature  is  a  product  of  the  history  ;  and  (2)  because 
we  need  the  results  of  literary  criticism  to  check  and  con- 
trol our  scheme  of  the  facts  of  history,  and  sometimes 
even  to  explain  the  facts  as  ascertained.  In  this  auxiliary 
use  of  literary  interpretation  it  is  of  the  first  importance 
that  we  know  the  characteristics  of  the  Old  Testament 
writers  and  writings  :  their  mode  and  style  of  narrative 
and  description  ;  their  use  of  figures  of  speech,  especially 
of  synecdoche  and  hyperbole  in  longer  or  shorter  passages; 
their  notions  of  time,  space,  and  number;  their  conceptions 
of  the  world  and  of  events  as  related  to  human  and  extra- 
human  forces  and  powers  ;  their  views  of  their  own  and 
their  nation's  position  and  destiny,  of  their  relations  to 
their  God,  of  life  and  duty,  of  the  state  of  the  dead  to 
whom  they  were  gathered. 

§  871.  The  conditions  under  which  literary  composi- 
tion was  promoted  in  Israel  are  partly  general,  prevailing 
wherever  an  indigenous  literature  has  been  cultivated, 
and  partly  peculiar  to  the  genius  and  history  of  Israel 
itself.  The  former  may  be  taken  to  include  :  1.  Uni- 
versal and  necessary  factors.  These  have,  perhaps,  been 
best  set  forth  by  Taine  as  "  race,  environment,  and  epoch, 
or  the  permanent  impulse,  the  given  surroundings,  and 
the  acquired  momentum."1  2.  Those  conditions  which 
are  found  to  have  attended  the  beginnings  of  every 
ancient  national  literature.  These  may  be  summarized 
as  follows  :   (1)  The  occurrence  in  the  young  community 

1  Littirature  anglaise,  Intr.  §  V. 


24  CONDITIONS   OF   A   LITERATURE:    WHITING      Book  IX 

of  memorable  events,  such  as  victories,  deliverances,  new 

settlements,  new  social  institutions.  (2)  Stated  tribal 
or  national  gatherings,  gradually  forming  an  interested 
body  of  speakers  and  hearers.  (3)  The  rise  of  a  profes- 
sion or  guild  of  bards,  minstrels,  reciters,  narrators,  who 
perpetuate  and  give  shape  to  the  traditions  of  the  event- 
ful past.  These  conditions  have  prevailed  in  most  ancient 
nations,  and  yet  few  nations  have  given  birth  to  a  great 
or  lasting  literature  founded  upon  such  beginnings.  All 
depends  upon  the  special  conditions.  What  these  were 
in  the  case  of  Israel  will  appear  in  the  course  of  the 
inquiry.  But  there  is  one  factor  which  has  been  so  much 
misunderstood  and  is  of  such  prime  importance,  that  it 
demands  a  separate  discussion  at  the  outset.  It  is  often 
brought  before  us  by  questions  like  these  :  When  did  the 
Hebrews  learn  the  art  of  writing  ?  Is  it  possible  to  trace 
the  conditions  under  which  the  earliest  writers  found 
their  materials  or  did  their  work  ? 

§  872.  That  the  art  of  writing  was  in  vogue  among 
the  Hebrews,  even  at  the  time  when  the  oldest  surviving 
records  were  penned,  is  very  probable,  apart  from  the 
value  of  the  direct  Biblical  testimony.  The  notion  now 
widely  prevalent  that  it  became  known  to  them  only  after 
their  establishment  as  a  nation  is  a  hasty  assumption 
which,  however,  deserves  consideration.  In  the  first  place, 
it  has  been  held  as  a  dogma  that  the  knowledge  of  the  so- 
called  -  alphabet  "  came  to  the  Hebrews  from  the  Canaan- 
ites  (Phoenicians)  after  the  settlement  in  Palestine,  and 
these  Phoenicians  in  their  turn  are  supposed  to  have 
adapted  the  characters  from  the  Egyptian  hieroglyphics. 

§  8To.  Both  of  these  positions  are,  however,  somewhat 
doubtful.  The  latter  in  particular  is  becoming  continually 
more  precarious.1     What  once  gave  it  almost  exclusive  cur- 

1  The  reader  has  an  opportunity  of  seeing  a  summary  presentation  of 
the  evidence  in  favour  of  the  Egyptian  origin  in  DB.  under  "  Alphabet," 
where  Mr.  Isaac  Taylor  adds  nothing  to  the  evidence  formerly  published 
by  himself  and  others.     Not  more  than  one-third  of  the  whole  list  of  signs' 


Ch.  Ill,  §  874  THE   ALPHABET  25 

rency  was  an  assumption  that  the  Phoenician  letters  must 
have  arisen  from  the  Egyptian  :  otherwise  whence  could 
they  have  come  ?  Nothing  was  then  known  of  any  other 
ancient  system  of  writing  than  the  Egyptian,  and  it 
seemed  to  be  morally  necessary  to  derive  the  later  sys- 
tem from  the  earlier.  Since  then  it  has  come  to  light, 
(1)  that  the  Egyptian  language  and  writing  never  had 
any  footing  in  Asia  ;  (2)  that  the  Babylonian  language 
and  writing  were  in  common  use  in  Syria  and  Palestine 
for  centuries  before  the  Phoenician  alphabet  was  intro- 
duced to  the  world  ;  (3 )  that  at  the  time  when  cir- 
cumstances most  favoured  the  introduction  of  Egyptian 
letters  into  "Western  Asia,  namely,  the  days  of  the  Egyp- 
tian occupation  of  Palestine  and  Phoenicia  Iry  the  kings 
of  the  nineteenth  dynasty,  the  Babylonian  language  and 
writing  were  used  for  ordinary  purposes  in  these  coun- 
tries and  even  in  correspondence  addressed  to  Egyptians 
residing  in  Egypt  (§  148  ff.).  Hence,  apart  from  the 
fact  that  an  obvious  resemblance  is  lacking  between  most  of 
the  Phoenician  letters  and  any  selected  list  of  hieroglyphs, 
no  historical  basis  existed  for  the  adoption  by  Asiatics  of 
the  writing  of  the  alien  and  self-centred  Egyptians. 

§  874.  A  survey  of  the  known  conditions  may  perhaps 
warrant  the  conjecture  that  the  "Phoenician"  alphabet 
came  into  general  use  after  the  disuse  of  the  Babyloni;in 
script,  in  consequence  of  the  gradual  withdrawal  of  Baby- 
lonian influence  from  the  West-land  under  the  Kasshite 
dynasty  (§  120  ff.).  It  is  probable  that  it  was  devised  in 
the  centre  of  the  western  Semites, and  not  among  the  peo- 
ple of  the  .Mediterranean  border-land,  whose  business  deal- 
ings were  mainly  with  Don-Semites.  Hence  not  Phoenicia, 
but  Mesopotamia,  the  centre  of  the  land  traffic,  should  he 
looked  upon  as  the  region  of  its  origin.  The  great  empo- 
rium,  Charran  (§   141),  a  home  of   learned  priests,  and 

resemble  the  corresponding  Egyptian  letters,  which,  moreover,  are  chosen 
from  forms  which  had  gone  oul  of  use  long  before  the  Phoenician  charac- 
ters came  into  existence. 


26  ALPHABET   PROBABLY   ARAM.EAX  Book  IX 


one  of  the  greatest  resorts  of  travellers  and  merchants 
in  Western  Asia,  may  possibly  have  been  the  city  where 
it  was  mainly  elaborated.1 

§  875.  Though  direct  evidence  is  wanting,  certain 
specific  considerations  tell  in  behalf  of  an  Aramasan  ori- 
gin :  (1)  The  language  and  writing  of  the  Aramaeans 
took  the  place  of  the  Babylonian  in  the  active  business 
life  of  the  whole  region  west  of  the  lower  Euphrates  and 
the  Tigris  ;  their  language  was  the  language  of  business 
and  diplomacy  (2  K.  xviii.  2H),  as  the  Babylonian  had 
been.  (2)  Historically  the  common  alphabet  changed 
far  more  among  the  Araniseans  than  among  the  Phoeni- 
cians.2 It  was  from  the  former  that  the  Hebrew  "  square  " 
characters  were  derived.  What  can  thus  be  traced  in 
surviving  monuments  suggests  that  before  the  earliest 
period  of  which  Ave  have  written  record  the  same  sort  of 
activity  went  on  among  the  Aramaeans.  (3)  In  the 
eighth  and  seventh  centuries  B.C.  the  Aramaean  language 
and  writing  were  frequently  used  in  Assyria  and  Baby- 
lonia along  with  the  native  cuneiform.3     They  thus  pen- 

1  Its  growth  was  of  course  gradual,  like  every  other  system  of  conven- 
tional signs.  Its  main  motive  and  occasion  were  commercial,  but  its  com- 
plete elaboration  involved  the  art  and  skill  of  the  student,  since  it  was 
an  almost  perfect  representation  of  the  north  Semitic  sounds.  Circum- 
stances were  favourable  to  the  production  of  an  improved  method  of 
writing.  As  long  as  the  Babylonian  language  was  used  for  political  and 
commercial  notes  and  correspondence,  the  cuneiform  characters  were 
employed  with  it.  Even  non-Semitic  languages  were  written  in  cunei- 
form (§  150,  154,  256).  Its  inadequacy  to  express  the  gutturals  must 
have  contributed,  with  other  occasions,  to  its  abandonment  when  the 
Babylonian  language  was  crowded  out  of  Syria,  first  by  the  Hettite 
speech  and  writing,  and  later  permanently  by  the  Aramsean. 

-  The  relative  rate  of  change  may  be  followed  in  Luting's  table  of  the 
Semitic  alphabet  in  Bicked's  Hebrew  Grammar,  tr.  by  Curtiss  (1877),  or 
in  his  latest  presentation  in  Zimmern's  Veryleichende  Grammatik  der 
semitischen  Sprachen  (1898).  An  excellent  exhibit  is  made  in  Stade's 
Hebr.  Grammatik  (1879)  in  Plate  I  appended,  where  the  course  of  the 
"western  development"  and  of  the  "eastern  development"  is  made 
plain  to  the  eye  by  sufficient  examples. 

s  See  III  R.  46  ;  CIS.  Part  II,  vol.  i.,  Plates  1-14,  15  ff.,  73  ff.  These 
inscriptions    are   found  on  the   signet-rings  of   citizens,  on  weights   in-' 


Ch.  Ill,  §  875       ARGUMENTS   FOR   THE    HYPOTHESIS  27 

etrated  into  the  private  and  public  life  of  the  people, 
their  daily  business  and  civic  affairs.  The  characters  are 
practically  identical  with  the  contemporary  Phoenician. 
On  the  supposition  that  alphabet-making  began  with  the 
Phcenicians  and  spread  eastward,  it  is  not  easy  to  under- 
stand how  the  Araimeans  (who  were  in  any  case  familiar 
with  the  Babylonian  script  formerly  in  universal  use)  and 
Assyrians  with  them  should  have  employed  such  a  Phoe- 
nician alphabet,  and  especially  that  in  their  hands  it 
should  have  diverged  so  little  from  the  Phoenician  type. 
If,  however,  the  alphabetic  system  originated  with  the 
Aramaeans,  the  facts  are  readily  explained.  (4)  The 
Aramaeans  did  most  to  spread  the  knowledge  of  the 
alphabet  throughout  Western  Asia.  From  the  eighth 
century  B.C.  onward  their  inscriptions  are  found  from 
Northern  Syria  to  West-central  Arabia,  and  from  Egypt 
to  the  banks  of  the  Tigris.  This  does  not  exclude  the 
jmssibility  of  a  borrowing  ;  but,  taken  with  what  has 
been  said,  it  makes  it  improbable.  (5)  The  names  of  the 
letters,  as  far  as  they  can  be  understood,  point  to  their 
production  among  a  people  familiar  with  nomadic  and 
pastoral  usages.  Such  names  as  "camel"  (Gimel), 
"  tent-pin  "  (  Wail),  "  ox  "  (Aleph),  and  "  ox-goad " 
{Lamed)1,  would  hardly  have  been  thought  of  by  the 
maritime  Phcenicians.  The  Aramrean  settlements  were 
everywhere  centres  of  nomadic  and  pastoral  life  and 
traffic.  (6)  The  names  of  the  letters  adopted  by  the 
Greeks  from  the  Phoenicians  have  nearly  all  the  Ara- 
maic definite  ending  a.2     In  fine,  the  historic  role  of  the 

spected  by  public  censors,  and  as  dockets  to  business  contracts  drawn 
up  by  clerks.     Cf.  de  Vogue"  in  CIS.  ibid.  p.  vi. 

1Stade,  ILhr.  Grammatik  (1879),  p.  25,  note  7,  observes  that  the 
oldest  forms  of  the  letters  Beth  and  Daleth  correspond  to  the  Bhapes  of 
the  tent  and  the  tent-opening  rather  than  to  those  of  a  "house"  and  a 
'•  lmuse-door." 

2  It  should  be  noticed  with  regard  to  the  guttural  letters  n.  n,  n,  and  r, 
changed  into  Alpha,  Epailon,  Eta,  and  Omikron  respectively,  that  the 
way  must  have  been  already  prepared  for  this  transfer  by  the  pronuncia- 


28  EARLIER  IDEOGRAPHIC  SYSTEM  Book  IX 

Aramaeans,  played  during  the  formative  era  of  the  alpha- 
bet, their  function  as  intermediaries  and  negotiators,  and 
their  geographical  distribution,  seem  to  have  predestined 

them  to  devise  a  more  fitting  medium  of  expression  and 
communication  than  that  employed  by  their  Babylonian 
and  Hettite  predecessors. 

§  876.  It  is  useless  to  speculate  upon  the  forms  and 
modes  of  writing  that  immediately  preceded  the  alpha- 
betic. Documents  may  yet  be  unearthed  which  will 
settle  the  essential  cpuestions.  Meanwhile,  it  is  natural 
to  assume  that  the  Aramaean  ••inventors"  —  if  one  may 
use  such  a  misleading  term  —  received  suggestion  and 
stimulus  both  from  the  Hettite  and  from  the  Baby- 
lonian system,  mainly  from  the  latter.  The  "invention," 
though  of  such  tremendous  consequence,  was  not  in  itself 
a  very  wonderful  feat.  Its  difficulty  has  been  exaggerated 
through  the  consideration  that  the  Egyptians  and  Baby- 
lonians, peoples  more  civilized  and  literary  than  the  early 
Phoenicians  or  Aramaeans,  did  not  progress  from  the  ideo- 
graphic or  syllabic  to  a  completely  alphabetic  system. 
But  the  Egyptians  did  actually  devise  a  partial  alphabet, 
and  the  Babylonians  were  within  reach  of  it  at  any  time. 
It  may  be  said  that  if  the  decisive  transition  had  really 
been  so  simple  and  obvious,  the  Egyptians  and  Baby- 
lonians would  surely  have  made  it.  Those  who  offer  this 
plea  ma}'  be  referred  for  an  answer  to  the  opponents  of 
reform  in  English  spelling.  With  every  conceivable 
motive  to  adopt  a  purely  alphabetic  method,  we  adhere 
to  a  mixed  system  somewhat  analogous  to  the  Egyptian1 

tion  <>f  the  trailing  Phoenicians  themselves,  who  notoriously  dropped  their 
gutturals  all  along  the  shore  of  the  Mediterranean.  The  popular  saying 
thai  the  Phoenicians  brought  the  alphabet  to  Greece  means  that  the 
<  rreeks  learned  the  alphabet  from  them  in  the  intercourse  of  trade.  How 
important  the  naming  of  the  letters  was  may  be  inferred  from  the  fact 
that  the  Greeks  learned  in  addition  to  the  signs,  their  Phoenician  (Ara- 
maic) names. 

1  For  example,  the  spelling  though,  which  expresses  two  simple  sounds 
by  six  distinct  signs,  is  more  hieroglyphic  than  alphabetic. 


Cn.  Ill,  §  876  TRANSITION   STAGE  29 

and  much  less  consistent  than  the  Babylonian.  It  would 
seem  that  the  business  of  simplification  could  be  done  only 
by  a  people  familiar  with  imperfect  modes  of  writing,  yet 
not  wedded  to  them  by  the  force  of  literary  tradition 
and  sacred  custom ;  in  other  words,  a  people  like  the 
practical  ubiquitous  Aramaean  pupils  of  the  Babylo- 
nians.1    Future  discoveries  may  lead  to  exact  inductions.2 

1  How  simple  the  process  was  may  be  shown  as  follows :  According  to 
the  cuneiform  system,  a  series  of  signs  were  read  and  pronounced,  ba,  bi, 
bu,  ab,  ib,  ub,  da,  di,  du,  ad,  id,  ud,  and  so  forth  through  the  consonants. 
The  Babylonians,  among  whom  were  ardent  grammarians,  knew  as  well 
as  we  do  that  it  was  possible  to  analyze  and  classify  the  sounds  thus 
indicated,  and  they  did,  in  fact,  represent  the  vowels  by  special  signs. 
But  they  did  not  go  any  farther,  even  after  the  alphabetic  Aramaean  was 
used  in  their  midst,  because  they  already  had  a  system  sufficient  for  their 
purposes,  and  sacred  to  them  as  being  the  gift  of  Nebo  (I  R.  35,  nr.  2,  line  4). 
The  Babylonian  signs  were  essentially  combinations  of  strokes  like  the 
Aramtean  and  Phoenician.  Moreover,  the  signs  had  names  given  to  them, 
as  the  letters  of  the  alphabet  also  had. 

2  The  literature  on  the  ancient  alphabet  is  large,  but  not  very  impor- 
tant. The  elaborate  treatises  for  the  most  part  maintain  an  Egyptian 
origin,  and  are  antiquated  through  the  fact  that  the  material  for  study 
and  comparison  has  of  late  years  greatly  increased  and  is  still  increasing. 
The  best  known  to  English  readers  is  that  of  Isaac  Taylor,  The  Alphabet, 
2  vols.  1883;  notable  are  Wuttke,  Die  Entstehung  der  Schrift.  1S72  ; 
Lenormant.  Essai  sur  la  propagation  de  Valphabet  phenicien  dans  Vancien 
monde,  1H72  ;  Brugsch,  Ueber  Bildung  und  Entwickelung der  Schrift,  !*<'<*  ; 
Berger.  Histoire  de  Vicriture  dans  Vantiquite,  1891.  A  good  statement  of 
the  history  of  opinion  is  given  by  Stade,  Hebr.  Gh'ammatik  ( 1879),  p.  23  IT., 
cf.  Nowack,  HA.  I,  279  ff. ;  and  (more  independent)  Benzinger,  II A. 
p.  278  ff.  Deecke  (DZMG.  xxxi.  107  ff.)  propounded  the  hypothesis 
that  the  Semitic  alphabet  was  derived  from  the  cuneiform  Assyrian.  It 
was  impossible  for  him,  however,  to  demonstrate  the  transition  stages, 
and  the  historical  considerations  were  not  fully  available  even  as  late  as 
1877.  stade  (I.e.),  who  rightly  observes  thai  the  old  Babylonian  is  to  be 
thought  of  in  any  case  rather  than  the  Assyrian  type  of  cuneiform  script, 
objects  to  tlie  theory  generally  upon  the  following  plea  among  others: 
"that  in  the  older  time  the  Semitic  peoples  had  much  more  active, 
friendly  intercourse  with  Egypt  than  with  the  lands  of  the  Tigris  and 
Euphrates.'1  This  odd  remark  is  repeated  by  Nowack  in  a  slightly  altered 
form  (p.  'J*:.').  Hommel,  GBA.  p.  60  ff.,  adduces  strong  arguments  for 
the  view  that  the  Semitic  alphabet  is  of  Babylonian  origin.  Meyer 
(GA.  §  197)  thinks  thai  the  Hettite  writing  had  a  decisive  influence 
upon  the  system.     This  is  doubtful. 


30  WHEN   THE    HEBREWS   LEARNED    WRITING       Book  IX 

§  877.  The  other  point  involved  in  the  preliminary 
question  of  the  age  and  mode  of  writing  among  the 
Hebrews  (cf.  §  872)  has  to  do  with  the  time  when  and 
the  source  from  which  they  derived  this  important  aid 
to  literature.  The  opinion,  now  so  generally  accepted, 
that  the  Hebrews  had  no  acquaintance  with  the  art  until 
they  settled  in  Palestine  after  the  conquest,  is  based  upon  a 
manifold  misconception.  Its  possibility  may  be  admitted, 
but  not  its  probability.  This  opinion  is  thus  stated  by  a 
recent  writer  :  ]  "  If  —  and  this  is  a  matter  as  to  which  we 
have  no  certain  information  —  the  Israelites  during  their 
nomadic  life  in  the  desert  used  any  sort  of  writing,  this 
was  without  doubt  in  the  lowest  grade  of  development, 
that  is  to  say,  a  stage  in  which  no  syllable  signs,  much 
less  letters,  were  employed,  but  only  mnemotechnic  signs 
or  picture  writing,  such  as  at  the  present  day  the  Bedawin 
possess  (wasTrb),  with  which  they  brand  their  cattle,  or 
put  marks  upon  rocks  and  other  available  objects.  The 
Israelites  became  acquainted  with  alphabetic  writing,  as 
with  civilized  life  generally,  only  when  they  came  into 
contact  with  the  Canaanites  in  the  West  Jordan  or 
possibly  in  the  East  Jordan  country."  To  the  same 
effect  another  writes  : 2  "  When  we  consider  that  the  old 
Hebrew  alphabet  is  identical  with  the  Phoenician,  that 
the  Moabites  had  the  same  alphabet  as  the  Israelites,  and 

1  Benzinger,  HA.  p.  288. 

2  Nowack,  HA.  I,  288  f.  Kautzsck  writes  more  generally  in  Ab7-iss 
der  Geschichte  des  alttest.  Schrifttums  (ATU.,  Appendix),  p.  136:  "The 
conditions  under  which  alone  a  real  literature  can  at  any  time  arise 
—  above  all,  the  wide  extension  of  the  art  of  writing  and  reading,  a  settled 
mode  of  life  and  comparative  national  prosperity  —  did  not  exist  for 
Israel  till  toward  the  end  of  the  period  of  the  Judges  at  the  earliest,  and 
not  during  the  wilderness  journey  or  in  the  time  of  the  continual  struggle 
for  existence  of  the  tribes  after  the  entrance  in  Canaan."  This  judg- 
ment, perhaps  too  sweeping,  does  not  exclude  the  use  of  writing.  Cornill 
remarks  sensibly  (Einl.4  1896,  p.  8):  "The  Tell  el  Amarna  discoveries 
of  1887  have  opened  up  to  us  wholly  unimagined  perspectives.  In 
view  of  such  facts,  there  is  no  ground  whatever  for  denying  to  Moses 
a  knowledge  of  writing. " 


Ch.  Ill,  §  878  OPPORTUNITY   NOT   LACKING  31 

that  the  Canaanites  in  many  things  were  the  teachers  of 
the  Israelites,  it  is  natural  to  conjecture  that  the  Israelites 
learned  from  them  the  art  of  writing." 

§  878.  The  solution  of  the  problem  is  not,  however, 
such  a  simple  matter.  It  is  not  certain  that  Israel  was 
never  in  Canaan  before  the  final  settlement.  But  grant- 
ing that  the  Israelites  led  wholly  a  wilderness  life  before 
the  occupation,  it  does  not  follow  that  they  knew  nothing 
of  writing.  To  affirm  that  they  must  have  been  ignorant 
of  the  art  shows  a  misconception  of  the  character  of 
ancient  Semitic  civilization.  Because  the  Semites  did  not 
attain  to  such  a  culture  as  that  of  the  Greeks,  it  has  been 
assumed  that  they  were  essentially  a  barbarous  people.  The 
"  Phoenician  "  letters  have  been  regarded  as  the  sole  and 
exceptional  means  of  culture,  because  of  the  commercial 
enterprise  of  that  offshoot  of  the  race,  and  because  it  was 
from  them  that  the  Greeks  learned  the  alphabet.  This 
view  we  now  know  to  be  erroneous.  Whatever  we  may 
think  of  the  kind  and  degree  of  the  culture  of  the  ancient 
Semites,  they  seem  to  have  been  everywhere  and  at  all 
times  writers.  It  was  therefore  not  at  all  necessary  for 
Israel  to  have  occupied  Palestine  in  order  to  learn  this 
art.  There  is,  as  we  have  seen  (§  875),  no  evidence 
either  that  the  Phoenicians  were  the  first  to  use  the  let- 
ters called  by  their  name,  or  that  it  was  from  them  that 
the  other  inhabitants  of  Palestine  received  the  alphabet. 
In  any  case  the  universal  prevalence  of  writing  before 
Israel's  final  settlement  made  it  quite  possible  for  them  to 
learn  to  write,  even  apart  from  the  special  opportunities 
open  to  favoured  members  of  the  race  in  Egypt.  Wher- 
ever trade  was  carried  on  within  the  vast  region  between 
Egypt,  South  Arabia,1  and  Babylonia,  there  accounts  were 

1  Tlie  facts  about  the  Minsean  kingdom  of  South  Arabia  and  its  trade 
relations  northward  are  not  quite  clearly  made  out.  It  is  probable  thai 
this  people,  whose  inscriptions  are  numerous,  had  close  commercial  rela- 
tions with  North  Arabian  tribes.  The  influence  of  Minpean  culture  and 
writing  has,  however,  been  greatly  exaggerated. 


32  TESTIMONY   FROM   JUDGES  Book   IX 

cast  up,  contracts  made,  and  records  kept.  It  is  there- 
fore without  warrant  that  writing-  has  been  denied  to 
Israel  during  the  Mosaic  epoch. 

§  879.  But  let  us  look  at  the  question  from  another 
point  of  view.  In  the  ode  of  Deborah  (Jnd.  v.)  we  have 
a  document  of  about  1120  b.c.,1  which  presupposes  writ- 
ing as  a  thing  long  established.  In  one  passage  (v.  14) 
it  is  said, 

"  From  Machir  there  came  down  the  troop-leaders,2 
And  from  Zebulon  those  that  march  with  the  baton  of  the  captain."  3 

The  names  of  the  officers,  meaning  originally  "  engrav- 
ers" and  "scribes,"  taken  in  connection  with  the  whole 
of  the  splendid  poem,  throw  a  flood  of  light  upon  the  cul- 
ture of  early  Israel.  They  demonstrate  that  Hebrew  was 
the  language  of  Israel  before  the  Exodus,  for  such  a  mas- 
tery of  it  for  the  highest  literary  purposes  could  not  have 
been  acquired  in  a  single  generation,  at  least  not  by  a 
race  of  untutored  nomads.  The  inferences  are  of  decisive 
importance.  (1)  The  Hebrews  in  Egypt  spoke  Hebrew. 
They  conld  have  learned  it  only  in  Palestine,  for  it  is 
•■•the  language  of  Canaan"  (Isa.  xix.  18).  (2)  Israel  in 
Egypt  was  an  exile  from  Canaan,  and  the  settlement  was 
a  return  homeward.     Placing  these  facts  along  with  the 

1  It  is  useless  to  attempt  to  make  out  a  chronology  of  the  Judges  from 
the  biblical  numbers.  The  Exodus  is  now  admitted  to  be  tixed  at  about 
1200  b.c  —  rather  later  than  earlier  than  that  date  (§  167).  The  first 
inroad  of  the  tribes  into  Canaan  having  been  made  about  1160,  not  much 
more  than  a  generation  was  required  to  bring  about  the  state  of  things 
described  in  Jud.  iv.  and  v. 

2  Literally,  •' prescribers,  ordainers "  (cf.  Isa.  x.  1;  Prov.  viii.  15). 
Our  word  "prescribe"  has  had  an  analogous  history.  The  word  meant 
first  to  engrave,  then  to  write  down  (naturally  with  a  small  graving-tool 
or  stylus),  and  lastly,  from  the  fact  that  regulations  were  specially  writ- 
ten down,  came  the  sense  of  ordaining. 

3  Literally,  "the  scribe,"  i.e.  the  man  who  kept  the  muster-roll,  who 
was  in  this  rudimentary  military  system  the  commander  of  his  troop. 
"The  poet  evidently  seeks  changing  expressions  for  the  often  recurring 
idea,  chiefs"  (Moore,  Commentary  on  Judges,  1895,  p.  151). 


Ch.  Ill,  §  881        WHITING   IS   NOT   LITERATURE  33 

evidence  for  Hebrew  settlements  in  Canaan  about  1500 
B.C.  (§  3G9,  note),  and  the  still  later  proof  that  there  was 
a  considerable  settlement  of  Hebrews  there  shortly  before 
the  Exodus,  in  the  days  of  Merneptah,1  we  reach  the  con- 
clusion that  while  the  story  of  the  patriarchal  settlement 
in  Canaan  has  a  substantial  basis,  the  account  of  the  resi- 
dence in  Egypt  and  of  the  events  till  the  occupation  is 
only  a  part  of  the  total  history. 

§  880.  The  special  matter  before  us,  hoAvever,  is  the 
early  acquaintance  of  Israel  with  the  art  of  writing,  and 
this  is  clearly  proved  by  the  history  of  the  terms  used  in 
the  above  extract.  Etymological  inference  is  sometimes 
precarious,  but  here  it  is  certain  and  unmistakable.  Writ- 
ing was  such  an  old  national  habit  among  the  speakers  of 
Hebrew  that  words  designating  it  had  taken  on  secondary 
and  ulterior  meanings,  implying  a  long  process  of  institu- 
tional development.  This  process,  however,  as  linguistic 
comparison  shows,  was  undergone  in  Canaan  and  not 
elsewhere  ;  and  we  must  therefore  assume  that  Israel  par- 
took of  the  culture  of  that  country  from  the  days  of  the 
Babylonian  occupation  onwards.  There  can  therefore  be  no 
question  as  to  the  external  facilities  for  literary  composi- 
tion at  the  disposal  of  the  Hebrews  in  the  days  of  Moses. 

§  881.  The  knowledge  and  practice  of  writing,  how- 
ever, only  made  a  written  literature  possible  ;  it  did  not 
necessarily  imply  its  existence.  Writing,  even  alphabetic 
writing,  was  often,  perhaps  usually,  employed  among 
ancient  Semites  by  communities  which  had  no  literature 
at  all,  since  its  motive  and  object  were  practical,  not  senti- 
mental (see  §  809).  On  the  other  hand,  a  literature,  or 
at  least  its  materials,  existed  usually  independently  of  and 
sometimes  previously  to  the  practice  of  writing.  The 
foregoing  discussion  lias  therefore  merely  served  the  pre- 

1  According  to  the  now  famous  hymn  celebrating  the  power  of  that 
Pharaoh,  and  discovered  by  Professor  Petrie  in  1896.     Near  the  end  it 

contains  the  line,  among  others  referring  to  his  conquests  in  Palestine, 
"  Israel  has  been  torn  out  without  offshoot." 


31  EARLIEST   USES  OF   WRITING  Book  IX 

liminary  though  important  end  of  helping  to  clear  the  way 
for  the  settlement  of  the  matter  in  hand  and  determining 
its  conditions.  We  may,  besides,  learn  by  analogy  what 
place  was  occupied  by  a  written  literature  in  the  cultural 
development  of  such  a  people  as  the  Hebrews.  Conclu- 
sions may  be  drawn  from  the  literary  monuments  of  ancient 
peoples  taken  along  with  the  ascertained  laws  or  .gradations 
of  their  social  and  political  evolution. 

§  882.  The  following  summary  may  serve  to  show  the 
purposes  for  which  writing  was  employed  successively 
in  a  typical  community  of  the  ancient  East.  We  may,  I 
think,  say  that  writing  was  used  (1)  for  business  purposes, 
such  as  trading  accounts,  notes  of  bargains  or  of  formal 
contracts,  registration  or  indentures  of  slaves  or  hired 
labourers,  the  defining  of  boundaries  and  sites  of  buildings  ; 
(2)  for  lists  of  men  liable  to  serve  in  war  or  upon  actual 
service ;  (3)  for  civil  contracts,  trading  or  manufacturing 
rights  guaranteed  to  guilds  of  skilled  workmen,  charters  to 
privileged  tribes  or  cities ;  (4)  for  family  records,  chiefly 
genealogical ;  (5)  for  songs  and  poems  of  the  deeds  of  the 
great  of  old  or  of  former  tribal  leaders ;  (6)  for  special 
statutes  based  on  legal  decisions  or  "judgments"  ;  (7)  for 
official  records  usually  if  not  entirely  of  a  larger  or  smaller 
"  kingdom  "  ;  (8)  for  traditions  and  legends  running  back 
to  prehistoric  ages  connecting  the  national  history  with  the 
remotest  past. 

§  883.  The  development  of  an  actual  literature  has 
also  a  periodicity  of  its  own,  and  the  observed  progres- 
sion of  other  literatures  is  helpful  for  our  study  of  the 
Hebrew.  Literature  may  be  broadly  defined  as  the  pub- 
lished 2  productions  of  the  human  mind.  In  an  ancient 
national  literature  we  can,  of  course,  deal  only  inferen- 

1  Published,  that  is.  by  word  of  mouth  or  by  writing  or  printing.  The 
dictionary  definitions  confine  literature  to  what  is  written  or  printed. 
T!i is  excludes  the  vast  body  of  compositions  which  preceded  and  condi- 
tioned the  Iliad  and  Odyssey,  the  Vedas,  the  old  songs  of  Israel  and  of 
every  people  that  has  developed  a  national  literature. 


Ch.  Ill,  §  885  LITERARY   PERIODS  35 

tially  with  what  has  passed  out  of  the  sight  of  men,  which 
is  in  most  if  not  in  all  instances  larger  than  what  has 
been  preserved.  Taking  into  view  all  the  conditions  and 
the  available  evidence,  we  may  distinguish  the  successive 
stages  of  Hebrew  literature,  up  to  the  Exile,  as  follows  : 
(1)  the  poetical  heroic  or  epic  ballad  ;  (2)  the  prose  heroic 
or  epic  narrative ;  (3)  the  historical  or  national  narrative  ; 
(4)  the  oratorical  or  prophetic. 

§  884.  For  modes  and  directions  of  literary  activity 
we  are  thrown  back  upon  the  surviving  literature  itself. 
The  first  question  is  :  Are  there  among  the  extant  Hebrew 
writings  any  which  plainly  indicate  that  they  originated 
in  the  early  days  of  the  historic  Israel  ?  We  have,  more- 
over, to  distinguish  between  literature  which  was  pro- 
moted and  maintained  by  oral  transmission,  and  that 
which  was  committed  to  writing  soon  after  its  origina- 
tion.1 In  these  days  of  critical  rearrangement  it  will  be 
a  comfort  to  many  to  be  assured  that  the  opening  chapters 
of  the  Old  Testament  are  also  the  oldest,  in  as  far  as  they 
contain  the  oldest  materials  of  Hebrew  literature. 

§  885.  Such  are  the  venerable  relics  that  are  en- 
shrined in  the  stories  of  the  creation  of  the  world  and  of 
man,  of  the  earliest  history  of  mankind,  of  the  flood,  of 
city  building,  of  Babylonian  civilization,  and  of  the  dis- 
persion of  races.  Xot  all,  however,  of  the  traditions  that 
went  to  the  making  of  Gen.  i.-xi.  are  of  Hebrew  origin. 
One  of  the  two  writers2  who  contributed  to  our  present 

1  From  the  standpoint  of  the  historical  student  intellectual  and  moral 
movements  are  of  more  importance  than  editorial  activity.  Hence  the 
origin  of  the  various  portions  of  the  Hebrew  literature  is  of  more  concern 
to  us  than  questions  as  to  the  occasions  of  their  assuming  their  present  Conn. 

2  Since  critical  analysis  is  not  our  present  object,  and  in  any  case  estab- 
lished conclusions  must  be  taken  for  granted,  I  shall  continue  to  refer  to 
the  documents  which  make  up  the  historical  or  historico-legal  books  by 
the  usual  marks  :  D  =  Deuteronomist  ;  E  =  Elohist ;  II  =  Law  of  Holi- 
ness ;  J  =  Jehovist ;  P  =  Priestly  narrative.  Explanations  and  particu- 
lars the  educated  reader  may  find  in  Driver's  Introduction,  or  more  readily 
in  Bennett's  Primer  of  the  Bible  (1897),  not  to  mention  other  well- 
known  books. 


36  OLDEST   LITERARY    RELICS  Book  IX 

Bible  this  introductory  section  (P  or  the  priestly  narrator) 
may  have  drawn  most  of  his  materials  relating  to  these 
events  directly  from  Babylonia.  These  presumably  non- 
Hebraic  elements  are  the  account  of  the  creation  of  the 
heavens  and  the  earth  (as  distinguished  from  that  of  the 
world  of  men  by  J  or  the  prophetic  narrator)  comprised 
in  Gen.  i.  1-ii.  3,  and  the  longer  systematizing,  statistical 
account  of  the  deluge  (as  distinguished  from  the  more 
poetical  and  anthropomorphic  story  by  J)  in  Gen.  vi. 
9-22,  vii.  6,  11,  13-21,  24;  viii.  1,  3-o,  13-19.  The 
basis  of  the  remainder,  that  is  the  material  used  in  the 
narrative  of  J,  was  thus  the  oldest  genuine  Hebrew 
literature. 

§  886.  There  can  be  no  reasonable  doubt,  however, 
that,  directly  or  indirectly,  the  germinal  portions  of  both 
narratives  came  from  Babylonia.  The  important  ques- 
tion not  easily  solved  is,  What  portion  of  these  stories 
formed  the  actual  elements  of  ancient  tradition  or,  in  the 
wide  sense,  of  Hebrew  national  literature.  We  at  once 
perceive  that  two  motives  have  been  at  work  in  the 
narrative,  the  one  aiming  to  perpetuate  the  original  mate- 
rial, more  or  less  changed  in  the  transfer  from  mouth  to 
mouth,  and  the  other  seeking  to  make  the  recital  a  vehicle 
of  the  conceptions  proper  to  the  religion  of  Israel.  It  is 
the  additions  and  modifications  made  from  the  latter 
motive  that  have  really  given  to  these  chapters  the  char- 
acter of  biblical  literature,  just  as  it  is  the  poetic  and 
mythological  setting  of  the  corresponding  Babylonian 
legends  x  winch  have  given  to  them  their  place  among  the 
world's  literary  monuments.  But  the  earliest  period  of 
religious  reflection,  such  as  is  implied  in  the  theological 
•cosmogony  of  Genesis,  is  later  than  that  of  the  first  literary 
activity.       Hence   it   is   only   for   the  popular  traditional 

1  For  descriptions  and  analysis  of  the  Babylonian  creation  legends 
see  especially  Jensen,  Die  Kosmologie  der  Babylonier  (1890);  Gunkel, 
Schopfung  und  Chaos  (1895);  Delitzsch,  Das  babylonische  Weltschopf- 
uixjscpos  (1890);   and  Jastrow,  RBA.  (1898). 


Ch.  Ill,  §  887         THE   CREATION   AND   DELUGE  37 

elements  of  the  stories  that  we  can  claim  the  greatest 
antiquity.  Moreover,  we  have  these  only  in  a  modified 
and  eclectic  form,  such  portions  being  selected  as  lend 
themselves  best  to  the  scheme  of  interpretation.1  Further 
help  in  the  difficult  task  of  distinguishing  the  popular  from 
the  theological  elements  in  these  chapters  is  gained  by 
noting  the  points  which  the  Babylonian  and  the  Hebrew 
versions  of  the  creation  and  the  deluge  have  in  common.2 
§  887.  But  how  has  it  happened  that  this  unsystema- 
tized and  fragile  literary  material  had  in  primitive  days 
.such  vitality  and  persistency  ?  We  may  answer  this  ques- 
tion at  least  in  part  :  (1)  The  subjects  of  the  traditions 
were  intensely  fascinating  to  men  of  all  grades  of  culture. 

1  So  also  in  the  Babylonian  epic,  Jastrow,  RBA.  p.  409. 

2  It  is  unnecessary  to  show  in  detail  that  it  is  in  Babylonia  that  we 
are  to  seek  for  the  originals  of  at  least  the  principal  of  the  earliest  narra- 
tives of  Genesis,  those  of  the  creation  and  the  deluge.  Though  many 
attempts  have  been  made  to  show  close  analogies  between  the  Genesis 
story  of  the  flood  and  the  legends  or  traditions  of  many  other  peoples  in 
all  parts  of  the  world,  the  best  practical  proof  that  these  identifications 
are  baseless  is  furnished  by  the  fact  that  no  systematic  comparison  can  be 
made  between  them,  while,  on  the  other  hand,  scholars  of  the  highest 
eminence  since  the  era  of  George  Smith's  "  Chaldsean  Genesis"  (1875) 
have  been  busy  in  comparing  the  details  of  the  Hebrew  accounts  with 
those  of  the  Babylonian.  Possibly  there  was  at  one  time  a  body  of 
common  north  Semitic  popular  traditions,  and  it  is  unfortunate  that  the 
Phoenician  legends  are  accessible  only  in  a  late  and  fragmentary  form. 
Apart  from  striking  resemblances  in  details  of  plot  and  incident  the 
Hebrew  and  Babylonian  accounts  are  alike  in  making  the  sinfulness  of 
men  the  occasion  of  the  deluge  and  their  destruction  its  object.  For  the 
quest  ion  of  the  Israelitish  character  of  the  Bible  tradition  as  a  whole  the 
most  significant  facts  are  (1)  that  conclusive  evidence  points  to  Babylonia 
as  the  ultimate  home  of  all  the  traditions;  (2)  that  the  narrative  of  P 
containing  elements  different  from  those  of  J  probably  owes  its  materials 
to  the  post-exilic  residence  of  Israel  in  Babylonia  ;  (3)  that  the  style  and 
plan  of  P  reveal  the  influence  of  Babylonian  education  ;  (4)  that  never- 
theless J.  which  was  composed  not  later  than  the  eighth  century  n.o. 
(§  932  ),  lias  in  its  flood  story,  at  least,  more  resemblances  to  the  Babylon- 
ian versions  than  are  exhibited  in  the  narrative  of  P.  A  rational  recon- 
struction of  the  early  history  will  make  it  very  probable  that  the  ancestors 
of  the  main  stock  of  Israel  were  in  a  position  to  bring  with  them  from 
Babylonia  the  oldest  elements  of  the  national  literature. 


38  POPULAR    POEMS;    SOXG   OF   LAMECH        Book  IX 

(2)  It  is  very  probable  that  these  traditions  were  never 
quite  disconnected.  Even  in  their  popular  form  they  very 
early  made  part  of  schemes  of  cosmolog}-  which  gradually 
became  highly  refined  and  elaborate  with  the  progress 
of  knowledge  and  reflection.  Thus  it  is  certain  that  the 
material  which  was  taken  over  from  the  Babylonians  by 
the  Hebrew  writers  had  already  been  worked  up  into 
lengthy  compositions  of  wide  currency-  (3)  Almost  from 
the  first  these  traditions  were  circulated  and  transmitted 
from  generation  to  generation  in  rhythmic  or  poetic  form. 

§  888.  So  much  for  these  ideas  or  conceptions 
symbolized  in  concrete  form  which  furnish  the  motive 
of  the  opening  chapters  of  the  Bible.  But  it  was  also 
this  poetic  shaping  and  moulding  which,  more  than  any- 
thing else,  helped  to  preserve  almost  the  exact  words  of 
other  early  compositions.  I  refer  particularly  to  memo- 
rials and  recollections  of  tribal  or  national  achievement. 
Such  memorabilia  thus  framed  strike  the  imagination, 
and  by  reason  of  the  parallelistic  mode  of  expression  and 
the  continual  reshaping  into  concise  and  telling  periods, 
sink  deep  into  the  memory. 

§  889.  A  unique  example  is  the  song  of  Lantech,  of 
which  a  fragment  has  been  preserved  by  the  Jehovist  in 
his  earliest  narrative  of  human  fortunes  (Gen.  iv.  23,  24). 
This  mere  remnant  paints  with  Hebraic  vividness  the 
titanic  and  pitiless  temper  of  primitive  tribalism.  But 
how  much  of  both  the  earlier  and  the  later  history  of 
our  race  is  summarized  in  this  earliest  war-song,  in  its 
stern  exultation  over  the  dead  and  conquered  foeman,  in 
its  glorifying  of  revenge  as  the  business  and  the  joy  of  life  ! 
And  this  most  human  of  passions,  as  old  as  sin  and  death, 
and  as  new  as  the  last  anniversary  of  Sedan  or  of  Majuba, 
how  shockingly  vulgar  it  appears  here  in  its  essential 
savagery  !  And  how  this  old  barbarian  of  the  song  strips 
our  militarism  of  its  gaudy  trappings,  showing  it,  in  its 
essence,  to  be  mere  manslaughter,  and  tenfold  more  mur- 
derous than  the  vengeance  of  Cain  !     The  very  primitive- 


Ch.  Ill,  §  801  FIRST  HISTORICAL  POETRY  39 

ness  and  unconventional  frankness  of  this  old  ballad  are 
proof  of  its  remote  antiquity.  On  this,  as  well  as  upon 
other  and  more  obvious  grounds,  we  must  assign  to  it  the 
rank  of  one  of  the  oldest  extant  Hebrew  poems,  though  it 
would  be  vain  to  seek  for  the  original  author  or  even  the 
age  to  which  he  belonged. 

§  890.  The  survival  of  such  a  poem  of  strife  and  vic- 
tory gives  a  suggestion  as  to  the  kind  of  composition 
which  first  became,  in  the  strict  sense,  literature,  irrespec- 
tively of  the  time  when  it  was  committed  to  writing.  It 
was  national,  or  rather  tribal,  perils  and  triumphs  that 
were  first  commemorated  in  enduring  verse.  The  first 
purely  Israelitish  poem  is  very  probably  the  song  in 
Ex.  xv.  Not  that  the  whole  poem  is  of  contemporary 
origin,  for  important  additions  were  apparently  made  by 
the  author  of  the  work  in  which  it  is  found  (E).  The 
characteristic  portion,  however,  or  the  first  two-thirds  of 
the  whole,  is  genuinely  antique,  and  must  go  back  to 
the  earliest  period  of  the  national  existence.  Archaisms 
abound,  even  more  exceptional  than  those  of  Jud.  v. 
(§  804).  Such  are  archaic  inflectional  forms  (e.g.  in  vs. 
2c,  ha,  6c),  archaic  usage  of  words  later  employed  other- 
wise (vs.  2b,  4a,  6b,  la).  Equally  striking  are  the  primi- 
tive religious  conceptions  such  as  that  of  Jehovah  as  a 
"man  of  war"  (v.  3)  with  the  parallelism  that  "Jahwe 
is  his  name."  As  a  matter  of  fact,  not  literary  but 
historical  considerations  have  convinced  critics  that  the 
whole  poem  is  of  later  origin.  Now  that  fuller  light  is 
breaking  in  upon  the  history  of  Israel  and  its  relation  to 
the  culture  of  the  times,  a  more  conservative  attitude 
toward  such  questions  as  are  here  raised  may  be  fairly 
expected  to  prevail. 

§  891.  It  is  significant,  however,  that  for  the  period 
intervening  between  the  Exodus  and  the  close  approach 
to  the  eastern  border  of  Canaan,  there  is  little  or  no  rep- 
resentative literature.  Doubtless  a  tradition  of  many 
incidents  that  occurred  during  this   interval    was  main- 


40  LEGISLATION   OF   SINAI  Book  IX 

tained  for  several  generations,  until  the  documents  were 
drawn  up  which  idealized  them  into  close  coordination 
with  the  later  religious  history.  Notes  of  the  several 
stations  of  the  wilderness  journey,  of  the  conflict 
with  Amalek,  the  rendezvous  with  Jethro,  and  other 
decisive  events,  may  well  have  been  made  by  the  great 
leader  (cf.  Ex.  xvii.  14).  But  these  are  scarcely  the 
material  of  literary  composition.  There  is,  however,  one 
transcendent  occurrence,  of  which,  at  first  sight,  there 
seem  to  be  copious  literary  memorials.  The  sojourn  at 
Sinai  plays  a  more  prominent  part  in  the  current  theory 
of  the  development  of  the  nation  than  any  other  event 
not  excepting  the  Exodus  itself.  The  narrative  testifies 
to  the  consciousness  of  the  new  epoch  in  Revelation.  It 
is  not  merely  that  Moses  is  here  a  legislator.  That  has 
already  been  emphasized  in  Ex.  xviii.,  which  gives  a  pic- 
ture of  his  activity  true  to  the  life.  Such  a  picture, 
however,  might  be  the  later  expression  of  a  traditional 
conception,  though  none  the  less  authentic  on  that 
account.  But  in  the  Sinai  narrative  the  very  contents 
of  his  inspired  legislation  are  given.  Of  this  whole  body 
of  commands  the  three  component  parts  are  strikingly 
dissimilar  to  one  another.  These  are  the  Decalogue  (Ex. 
xx.  1-17),  the  Book  of  the  Covenant  (Ex.  xx.  23-xxiii.  19), 
both  in  E,  and  the  Priestly  Legislation,  giving  directions 
concerning  the  tabernacle,  the  priesthood,  sacrifices,  puri- 
fications, and  atonement,  vows  and  tithes  (Ex.  xxv.-xxxi., 
xxxv. -xl.,  and  all  Leviticus),  along  with  miscellaneous 
laws  mainly  relating  to  the  organization  of  the  tribes  in 
view  of  their  desert  journey,  the  duties  of  the  Levites, 
the  maintenance  of  ceremonial  purity,  and  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  tabernacle  (Num.  i.-x.). 

§  892.  In  the  last-named  large  and  varied  bod}^  of 
ordinances  it  is  probable  that  some  of  the  simple  direc- 
tions relating  to  the  life  and  conduct  and  practical 
management  of  the  tribesmen  are  embodied.  But  the 
whole  legislative  corpus  is  plainly  an  idealizing  system, 


Ch.  Ill,  §  893     WHAT   CAME   FROM   MOSES   HIMSELF  41 

the  product  of  much  later  days,  and  it  would  be  vain  to 
seek  in  it  for  literary  material  of  the  date  of  the  sojourn 
in  Sinai.  The  other  two  stand  in  closer  relation  to  the 
earl}-  times  of  Israel.  The  chief  difficulty  in  the  way  of 
ascribing  the  laws  of  the  Book  of  the  Covenant  to  Moses 
directly  and  in  their  present  form  is  the  fact  that  they 
imply  a  long  period  of  settled  agricultural  life  with  a 
corresponding  social  and  political  development.  In  itself 
it  seems  reasonable  that  the  lawgiver  should  have  sought 
to  educate  his  people  for  their  residence  in  Canaan  as 
actual  proprietors  of  the  soil  in  view  of  the  enormous 
moral  and  economic  difficulties  of  such  a  social  and  indus- 
trial revolution.  And,  therefore,  there  can  be  little  doubt 
that  the  spirit  if  not  the  actual  words  of  his  teaching  per- 
vades this  most  influential  of  all  ancient  law-books.  The 
preceptive  portions  of  the  Decalogue,  as  distinguished 
from  the  prefatory  sentences,  which  are  still  further 
expanded  in  a  later  rendition  (Dent.  v.  6-21),  are  Mosaic 
in  spirit  and  possibly  in  language.  Their  antiquity  is 
proved  by  the  sure  tradition  of  their  inscription  on  the 
tablets  of  stone  that  Avere  placed  in  the  ark  of  the  Cove- 
nant. It  is  remarkable  that  there  is  another  decalogue 
(Ex.  xxxiv.  17-26,  from  J)  whose  ten  enactments  contain 
precepts  found  both  in  the  Book  of  the  Covenant  and  in 
the  Decalogue  proper.  It  is  impossible  that  the  larger 
documents  could  have  been  expanded  from  this  smaller 
one.  The  smaller  is  therefore  an  independent  selection 
from  the  materials  which  lay  at  the  basis  of  the  larger. 
Hence  it  brings  us  even  less  near  than  the  Decalogue  of 
Ex.  xx.  to  the  fountain  of  tradition. 

§  893.  The  period  between  the  encampment  at  Sinai 
and  the  final  march  upon  ( 'anaan  is  to  be  estimated  accord- 
ing to  the  principles  already  indicated.  Except  probably 
in  the  names  of  the  stations,  the  scanty  materials  supplied 
by  tradition  have  been  expanded  and  modified  to  answer 
to  the  idealistic  conceptions  of  a  Later  age.  But  when  we 
come  once  more  within  the  domain  of  stirring  events,  we 


42  BOOK   OF    -'THE    WARS   OF  JEHOVAH"        Book  IX 

are  greeted  with  outbursts  of  national  feeling  of  an  origi- 
nality and  freshness  that  attest  their  antiquity  and  genuine- 
ness. Here  again,  as  at  the  Exodus,  we  have  that  intense 
life  and  energy  of  a  common  struggle  and  a  common 
triumph,  which  in  a  gifted  and  patriotic  community  is 
sure  to  find  expression  in  popular  song. 

§  894.  Such  are  the  fragments  of  the  poems  preserved 
by  E  (§  923  ff.)  and  contained  in  Num.  xxi.  They  are 
all  extracted  from  a  lost  work  of  the  early  days  of  the 
kingdom,  entitled  the  "  Book  of  the  Wars  of  Jehovah,"  to 
which  the  first  is  expressly  assigned  (vs.  1-4,  15).  It 
is  a  mere  topographical  fragment,  but  is  put  into  genuine 
poetic  form,  and  shows  minute  power  of  observation,  com- 
bined with  an  appreciation  of  natural  scenery  rare  and 

unexpected  : 

"  The  declivity  of  the  valleys 
Inclining  to  the  dwelling  of  At 
And  leaning  upon  the  border  of  Moab." 

This  poem  is  thus  seen  to  be  nearly  or  quite  contem- 
poraneous with  Israel's  march  along  the  region  thus 
described  ;  for  such  language  is  the  reminiscence  of  an 
eyewitness.  The  next  fragment  is  the  famous  "  Song  of 
the  Well  *'  (vs.  17,  18),  which  also  is  probably,  though  less 
certainly,  an  actual  reminiscence.  The  third  and  longest 
is  not  quite  intelligible.  It  may,  as  Meyer  maintains,1  ha  ve 
had  reference  originally  to  a  victory  gained  by  Northern 
Israel  over  Moab,  and  have  been  transferred  by  E  through 
a  misunderstanding  to  the  Mosaic  period.  The  history  of 
the  first  two  fragments,  at  all  events,  seems  to  have  been 
as  follows.  They  were  composed  by  poets  or  minstrels 
of  the  time.  They  were  recited  by  rhapsodists  till,  at 
some  unknown  date,  perhaps  in  the  time  of  David,  they, 
with  other  poems  of  the  early  wars  of  Israel,  were  col- 
lected into  a  "book."  Next  they  were  incorporated  by 
E  into  his  historical  work.     Characteristic  of  their  time 

i  ZATW.  I,  130  f.  (1881). 


Ch.  Ill,  §  896       OTHER   PENTATEUCHAL   POEMS  43 

of  production  is  the  title  of  the  last  collection  of  the  period 
when  Jehovah  was  a  "man  of  war"  (§  890;  cf.  1  Sam. 
xviii.  17;  xxv.  28). 

§  895.  The  remaining  poems  and  poetic  fragments 
contained  in  the  Pentateuch  have  little  or  no  material  of 
Mosaic  times.  The  prophecies  of  Balaam  (Num.  xxiii. 
and  xxiv.)  are  of  admirable  dramatic  effect  as  placed  in 
the  mouth  of  a  heathen  seer  of  Pethor ;  but  they  no 
more  lend  themselves  to  a  theory  of  literal  interpretation 
than  does  the  psalm  of  Jonah,  composed  according  to  the 
rules  of  Hebrew  rhythm  and  parallelism  in  the  "  sheol " 
of  the  great  fish.  They  were,  moreover,  a  striking  lesson 
to  outside  nations,  as  well  as  to  Israel,  of  the  guardian 
care  of  Jehovah  over  his  own  people  in  spite  of  all  the 
forces  that  threatened  to  destroy  them.  The  whole  story 
is  the  outcome  of  various  traditions  based  upon  an  histor- 
ical episode  (Mic.  vi.  5)  of  which  the  central  feature  was 
that  the  king  of  Moab  unsuccessfully  appealed  to  an  alien 
soothsayer1  to  bring  misfortune  upon  Israel  during  its 
march  upon  Canaan.  The  character  of  the  poems  them- 
selves indicates  that  even  the  oldest  stratum  (xxiv. 
17-19)  can  scarcely  have  originated  before  the  time  of 
David,  who  was  the  conqueror  of  both  Moab  and  Edom. 

§  896.  We  naturally  look  for  some  contemporary 
record  of  the  struggle  of  Israel  for  the  possession  of 
Canaan.  But  at  least  the  earl}"  history  of  that  struggle 
has  left  no  direct  literary  memorial,  with  the  exception  of 
a  brief  poem  or  poetical  fragment  placed  in  the  mouth  of 
Joshua  in  connection  with  his  great  victory  over  the  five 
kings  of  the  "Amorites"  (Josh.  x.  12).  That  this  adju- 
ration to  the  sun  and  moon,  or  its  substance,  was  uttered 
during:  some  noted  encounter  with  formidable  enemies  is 
made  probable  by  the  fact  that  it  was  misunderstood  by 
its  later  editors,  and  interpreted  to  mean  thai  the  sun  and 

1  That  the  narrative  is  composite  and  assigns  mure  than  one  residence 
to  Balaam  is  now  generally  admitted.  For  details  of  criticism  see  the 
article  "  Balaam  M  in  EB.  and  the  literature  there  cited. 


44  SONG    OF   DEBORAH  Book  IX 

moon  actually  stood  still  until  the  issue  of  the  battle  was 
decided.1  According  to  the  context  of  a  later  date  the 
verse  is  taken  from  the  "Book  of  Jashar"  (§  906  f.). 

§  897.  ( )f  the  later  stage  of  the  conflict  with  the 
Canaanites  a  memorial  has  been  left  which  is  at  the  same 
time  one  of  the  gems  of  all  Oriental  literature.  The 
"Song  of  Deborah"  (Jud.  v.)  is  by  many  critics 
thought  to  lie  the  earliest  Hebrew  composition  extant. 
Though  so  much  as  this  cannot  be  conceded,  it  will  be 
agreed  that  it  bears  more  numerous  marks  than  docs  any 
supposed  earlier  composition  of  being  the  work  of  an  eye 
or  ear  witness.  Its  relation  to  the  political  and  social 
development  of  Israel  has  already  been  dwelt  upon 
(§  479  f.),  and  it  has  also  been  shown  (§  879)  how  it 
throws  light  upon  the  cultural  progress  of  the  people  as 
well.  From  the  point  of  view  of  literary  history,  it  is 
clear  that  it  obviously  cannot  be  the  first  important  pro- 
duction of  its  kind,  much  less  the  first  considerable  poem 
generally.  In  it  we  see  the  lyric  poetry  of  war  and 
patriotism  brought  to  perfection.  Its  treatment  of  the 
theme  from  so  many  standpoints  and  with  reference  to 
so  many  national  interests  is  of  itself  a  mark  of  long  ex- 

1  The  mistake  was  due.  in  part  at  least,  to  a  misinterpretation  of  mi, 
which  does  not  mean  "  stand  still,"  but  "  be  silent."  then  "  cease  "  (Lam. 
ii.  18  ;  Ps.  xxxv.  15),  here  naturally  to  cease  shining.  The  Hebrews  were 
praying  for  darkness,  not  for  light ;  and  the  prayer  was  answered  by  the 
coming  on  of  a  great  tempest  (v.  11).  It  may  be  added  in  support  of  this 
view  (1)  that  both  sun  and  moon  are  appealed  to,  of  course  as  represent- 
ing the  light-giving  forces  generally  ;  (2)  that  the  staying  of  the  moon  would 
not  mid  to  the  light  of  any  day,  however  much  prolonged  ;  (3)  that  the 
appearance  of  the  moon  in  the  heavens  with  the  sun  is  an  exceptional 
occurrence.  We  have  to  deal  here  not  with  meteorology  or  astronomy, 
but  with  popular  poetry.  How  natural  this  metaphorical  use  of  being 
'•  silent  "  is  may  be  seen  in  Samson  Agonistes,  1.  86-88  : 

"  The  sun  to  me  is  dark 
And  silent  as  the  moon 
When  she  deserts  the  night," 

a  passage  imitated  by  Milton  from  Dante.  Inferno,  I.  56:  "  Where  the 
sun  in  silence  rests,"  and  V.  30  :  "  Where  light  was  silent  all  "  (Cary). 


Cn.  Ill,  §  899     POETIC   TRADITION   MAINTAINED  45 

perience  in  literary  composition.  The  song  is,  in  fact,  a 
literary  consummation,  like  the  poems  of  Homer.  Here 
we  may  learn  too  that  we  are  to  judge  of  ancient  society 
by  what  it  has  itself  to  tell  us  of  its  possibilities  and 
achievements,  and  not  according  to  criteria  drawn  from 
the  more  familiar  conditions  of  modern  life.  Thus  we 
see  that  a  people  may  have  developed  itself  greatly  along 
certain  lines  of  art  and  reflection,  while  it  may  be  very 
rude  and  backward  in  other  matters  which  seem  to  us  to 
be  the  first  essentials  of  morals  and  civilization. 

§  898.  Having  learned  that  the  period  of  the  judges 
was  not  much  more  than  a  century  in  duration,  we  find 
that  there  was  no  long  abatement  in  the  cultivation  of 
lyric  poetry.  In  the  restless,  unsettled  times  that  inter- 
vened till  the  accession  of  David,  there  was  nothing  to 
provoke  any  other  sort  of  composition,  and  in  the  events 
of  the  period  there  was  much  to  encourage  the  continu- 
ance of  an  art  and  habit  already  become  national.  Nothing 
composed  before  the  death  of  Saul  and  Jonathan  has  been 
preserved  ;  but  the  essential  thing  is  that  the  poetic  tradi- 
tion was  maintained.  Indeed,  it  was  impossible  that  it 
should  die  out  as  long  as  there  were  sacred  festal  assem- 
blies, gatherings  of  the  clans,  and  yearly  family  reunions, 
with  their  minstrels  and  bards.  Hence  we  cannot  consider 
David's  elegy  over  the  dead  king  and  his  much-loved  son 
(2  Sam.  i.  19-27)  as  anything  singular  of  its  kind.  Its 
preservation  indeed  implies  that  it  was  but  one  of  a  class 
of  compositions  prized  and  cherished  by  the  people  at  large. 
In  a  word,  this  poem,  with  its  symmetrical  structure  and 
fine  sense  of  proportion,  introduces  us  to  an  established 
poetical  literature. 

§  899.  David's  Lament  brings  us,  indeed,  very  near  to 
the  time  of  the  first  self-conscious  literary  movement, 
resulting  in  the  collecting  and  editing  of  poems  already 
current.  In  his  linn;  there  firsl  came  a  direct  provocation 
to  this  epoch-making  enterprise.  We  may  explain  by 
referring  once  more  to  the  art  of  writing.      As  we   have 


40  PUBLICATION   PROMOTED  Book  IX 

said  (§  881),  its  use,  even  when  widely  extended,  does  not 
make  a  literature,  because  literature  does  not  imply  writ- 
ing, but  merely  circulation.  Business  documents  may 
and  usually  do  exist  mainly  for  individuals.  They  are 
mere  memoranda,  whose  use  and  reference  lie  outside  the 
writings  themselves.  But  the  material  of  literature, 
whether  poems  or  national  records,  has  its  interest  in 
itself.  We  are  taken  by  it  out  of  the  region  of  calcula- 
tion and  routine,  into  the  world  of  sentiment  and  reflec- 
tion, from  the  outward  adjustments  of  society  to  the  move- 
ment and  expression  of  its  inner  life.  And  the  interest  in 
it  is  not  that  of  individuals  or  parties,  but  of  a  commun- 
ity. In  a  word,  literature  is  publication,  and  publication 
implies  a  public.  The  first  condition  then  is  that  there 
must  be  a  considerable  circle  of  people  interested  in  the 
matter  in  hand  ;  that  is  to  say,  a  circle  wider  than  and 
somewhat  different  from  the  gatherings  which  were  wont 
to  be  entertained  by  the  reciters  of  songs  or  "  saj-ings  " 
(Brtwtei  Num.  xxi.  27). 

§  000.  How  was  such  a  public  created  ?  Obviously  by 
those  events  and  ideas  which  left  the  deepest  and  most 
permanent  impression,  or,  in  other  words,  which  were  felt 
to  have  most  to  do  with  the  vital  interests  of  Israel. 
Whatever  commemorated  these  events  and  ideas  became 
precious  and  inalienable.  The  more  closely  the  clans  and 
tribes  were  drawn  together  and  became  animated  by  a 
common  cause  and  a  common  impulse,  the  more  they 
learned  to  prize  and  cling  to  the  traditions  and  monu- 
ments of  their  common  history.  Chief  among  these 
memorials  were  the  songs  and  stories  of  the  eventful 
past,  and  it  is  to  what  was  inspiring  in  them,  by  being 
genuinely  and  passionately  Israel  it  ish,  that  their  preserva- 
tion was  due.  They  were  thus  at  once  bonds  and  sym- 
bols of  a  growing  nationality.  But  as  long  as  there  was 
division  of  interest  or  action,  with  a  multiplicity  of  sanc- 
tuaries and  other  trysting  places,  popular  tales  and  poems 
were   not   apt  to  circulate  widely  and  thus  become   the 


Ch.  Ill,  §  902  PROFESSIONAL   SCUIBES  47 

common  property  of  many  people.  Hence  it  was  that 
only  what  was  strongest  and  best,  and  but  little  of  that, 
survived  the  strife  and  separation  of  the  days  of  the 
judges  or  the  unsettlement  and  confusion  of  the  transi- 
tion period  of  the  early  monarchy.  But  Avith  the  con- 
summation of  a  united  Israel,  under  the  sway  of  David, 
came  not  merely  the  opportunity,  but  the  inner  necessity 
of  a  publication  in  documentary  form  of  those  traditions 
which  consciously  and  in  a  very  real  sense  justified  the 
claim  of  Israel  to  be  the  chosen  people  of  Jehovah. 

§  901.  Add  to  this  that  in  David's  time  there  was 
introduced  the  practice  of  official  and  professional  writ- 
ing which  must  have  greatly  promoted  the  collection  of 
literary  relics.  The  king's  secretaries  now  for  the  first 
time  registered  contemporary  events  of  national  signifi- 
cance (§  522).  What  more  natural  than  that  another 
guild  of  scribes  should  grow  up  whose  task  it  was  to 
engross  and  preserve  the  records  of  the  past?  Not  only 
so,  but  the  same  writers  would  soon  be  employed  to  indite 
and  transcribe  the  original  utterances  of  the  singers  and 
orators  of  the  time  and  whatever  contemporary  produc- 
tion was  thought  worthy  of  preservation.  Between  the 
professional  minstrel,  if  we  may  use  the  term,  and  the 
professional  chronicler  and  poet,  there  must  needs  inter- 
vene the  professional  scribe. 

§  902.  Nor  was  there  any  lack  of  material.  A  gifted 
people  just  arrived  at  national  self-consciousness,  and  with 
an  inspiring  poetic  tradition  behind  it,  could  not  fail  to 
give  proof  of  its  new  attainments  and  powers,  as  the  tree 
must  attest  its  maturity  by  the  bearing  of  fruit.  Fresh 
subjects  suggested  themselves  as  the  themes  of  poetry. 
Even  the  new  kingly  order  in  the  state  deepened  the 
significance  of  Israel's  vocation.  Such  a  tragedy  as  the 
life  and  death  of  Saul  and  Jonathan  could  not  have  been 
enacted  before  on  any  arena  of  Israel's  history,  and  its  catas- 
trophe must  have  moved  many  susceptible  souls  to  pity 
and  terror,  of  which  the  deepest  and  strongest  expression 


48  LITERATURE   AND   THE   NEW    MONARCHY       Book  IX 

has  survived  in  David's  lament.  Then  there  were  the 
great  events  of  the  time,  transacted  on  a  scale  such  as 
Israel  never  knew  before  or  after  the  redemption  of  the 
land  from  the  Philistines  :  the  reunion  of  all  Israel  under 
the  warrior-statesman-poet  who  had  long  been  the  hope 
of  the  nation  ;  the  submission  of  the  neighbouring  peoples  ; 
the  promise,  however  illusory,  of  lasting  prosperity  and 
peace.  And  the  very  troubles  that  dashed  the  fair  hori- 
zon with  a  gloom  that  was  never  lifted  impressed  the 
imagination  and  moved  to  utterances  of  sympathy  and 
grief.  Of  such  a  kind  was  the  rebellion  of  Absalom 
and  his  death,  which  again  evoked  a  lament  from  David 
(2  Sam.  xviii.  33),  whose  distinction  it  was  to  pronounce 
the  most  moving  of  all  elegies  over  the  noblest  of  friends 
and  the  most  ignoble  of  sons.1 

§  903.  The  mention  of  David's  elegies  suggests  culti- 
vation of  a  type  of  composition  previously  unknown.  I 
mean  that  which  dealt  with  the  fates  of  individuals  instead 
of  the  fates  of  the  nation  or  of  the  community.  It  was 
again  the  institution  of  the  monarchy  which  prepared  the 
way  for  this  enrichment  of  the  literature  of  Israel  with 
the  oldest  and  most  essential  portions  of  Judges  and 
Samuel.  The  fortunes  of  no  man  less  than  a  national 
leader  could  excite  an  interest  wide  enough  to  create  for 
itself  the  public  which  is  necessary  for  a  literature.  It  is 
this  that  has  given  its  special  interest  to  the  parable  of 
Nathan  with  regard  to  the  appalling,  yet  kingly,  crime  of 
David  (2  Sam.  xii.  1  ft.).  Observe,  moreover,  how  many 
features  and  standpoints  of  interest  are  presented  in  the 
personal  history  of  David  and  his  court,  which  did  not  fail 
to  play  their  part  in  the  narratives  of  a  somewhat  later 
time,  the  prose  epics  of  ancient  Israel  (§  918  f. ). 

§  904.  We  can  scarcely  suppose,  however,  that  the 
actual   collecting  of   writings  on  any  large   scale  began 

1  Compare  also  the  pathos  of  his  poetical  lament  over  Abner 
(2  Sam.  iii.  33  f.).  Translate  freely:  -'Should  Abner  die  an  ignoble 
death?" 


Ch.  Ill,  §  905  THE   ERA  OF   SOLOM*  >X  49 

under  David.  Collection  follows  publication,  and  there 
was  then  hardly  enough  of  the  latter  to  suggest  the 
necessity  of  gathering  up  and  arranging  the  various 
compositions  of  that  and  the  preceding  ages.  This  is, 
properly  speaking,  editorial  work,  which  also  involves  a 
comparison  of  texts  and  the  addition  or  subtraction  of 
inherited  materials.  The  beginning  of  such  a  work  must 
be  assigned  to  the  more  expansive  and  leisurely  time  of 
King  Solomon.  There  all  the  conditions  favourable  to 
such  an  enterprise  were  present.  A  new  institution  was 
the  temple  with  its  services.  Everywhere  among  Semitic 
peoples  a  great  sanctuary  was  a  centre  of  intellectual 
life  and  interest.  In  Jerusalem  it  never  became  in  this 
way  what  it  was  in  Babylonia;  but  we  are  more  apt  to 
underrate  than  to  overrate  its  significance  and  that 
of  the  priests,  who  through  it  became  a  guild  of  collectors 
and  compilers.  Yet  their  influence  was  for  a  time  less 
direct  than  that  of  the  poetical  school.  Tradition  ascribes 
to  Solomon  himself  the  authorship  of  lyric  poems  as  well 
as  of  proverbs  (1  K.  v.  12,  or  EV.  iv.  32).  But  this  is 
merely  an  Oriental  way  of  saying  that  he  took  the  lead 
among  a  school  or  circle  of  poets  who  were  an  ornament 
as  well  as  an  appendage  of  his  court,  and  by  whom  much 
of  his  own  reputed  wisdom  was  loyally  contributed.  Thus 
there  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  in  the  Jerusalem  of 
his  time  there  was  much  intellectual  activity,  stimulated  by 
growing  knowledge  of  the  world  without,  attained  chiefly 
through  Phoenician  and  Egyptian  trade  and  alliance. 

§  905.  It  is  probable  that  something  of  the  original 
thought  and  speech  of  this  era  has  been  preserved  to  the 
latest  times.  We  have  already  alluded  to  the  nucleus  of 
the  prophecies  of  Balaam  (§  895).  Far  more  important 
is  the  great  historical  poem  known  as  the  "Blessing  of 
Jacob,"  a  survey  of  the  tribes  of  Israel  in  their  final 
settlement  in  Canaan,  placed  in  the  mouth  of  the  patri- 
arch dying  in  Egypt  (Gen.  xlix.).  The  description  is, 
from  a  literary  point  of  view,  quite  unique.     It  is  a  sort 


50  COMPILATION    OF   POETIC   BOOKS  Book  IX 

of  character  study,  inasmuch  as  it  gives  a  resume  of 
the  achievements  of  the  respective  tribes,  and  connects 
their  fortunes  with  their  outstanding  characteristics  sev- 
erally. That  it  belongs  to  the  time  of  the  undivided 
kingdom  is  reasonably  certain.  It  cannot  be  earlier, 
because,  while  the  tribes  are  all  mustered  and  dealt  with 
as  individuals,  they  yet  form  one  whole,  at  peace  with 
one  another  and  prosperous.  Moreover,  the  supremacy 
of  Judah  (vs.  8-12)  was  not  gained  till  the  time  of  David. 
It  cannot  be  later,  for  such  a  poem  is  inconceivable  after 
the  schism,  and  especially  after  the  outlying  tribes  had 
been  in  whole  or  in  part  lost  to  Israel.1 

§  906.  It  is  also  probable  that  we  owe  to  Solomon's 
scribes  the  compilation  of  the  two  books  already  cited,  the 
"Book  of  the  Wars  of  Jehovah"  and  the  "Book  of  Jashar," 
the  one  being  apparently  a  collection  of  poems  celebrating 
the  triumphs  of  Jehovah  the  "man  of  war"  (§  894)  as  cham- 
pion of  his  people  Israel,  up  to  the  entrance  into  Canaan, 
and  the  other  a  selection  of  national  poems  of  more  gen- 
eral character,  composed  after  that  event2  (§  896). 

§  907.  The  last  quotation  made  from  the  book  of 
Jashar  belongs  to  Solomon's  time,3  and  there  is  nothing 
of  the  sort  of  a  later  date.  The  fact  is  significant.  It 
is  noticeable  that  with  the  book  of  Samuel  the  poetical 
quotations  end.  The  explanation  is  that  with  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  kingdom  under  David  and  the  unification 
of  the  tribes,  the  period  of  personal  and  family  adventure, 
the  age  of  Hebrew  romance  and  chivalry,  comes  to  an  end, 

1  Contrast  the  "Blessing  of  Moses"  (Dent,  xxxiii.  ;  §  035). 

2  "Jashar''  is  an  honorific  name  of  Israel,  of  which  "  Jeshurun  " 
(Num.  xxiii.  10  as  amended  ;  Deut.  xxxii.  15.  xxxiii.  5,  26  ;  Isa.  xliv.  2) 
is  a  diminutive.  Both  words  were  of  course  originally  appellatives  :  "  the 
upright,''  or  rather  the  "right,"  or  well  pleasing  (to  Jehovah),  or,  which 
is  the  same  thing  practically,  the  successful,  victorious  one. 

3  According  to  the  Sept.  of  1  K.  viii.  5.°.,  which  has  a  reference  to  the 
book  in  the  reading  iv  pipXLifi  rijs  w8rjs.  This  has  been  conjectured  to 
stand  for  -iip»n  idd  sj;,  the  last  word  having  been  turned  into  "vtfn.  So 
Wellhausen  in  Bleek's  Einleitung  (4th  ed.),  p.  236. 


Ch.  Ill,  §  009  OTHER   ISOLATED   POEMS  51 

and  with  it  minstrelsy  and  rhapsody  decline.  Hence, 
when  the  historical  compilers,  working  at  a  later  time, 
gave  extracts  from  these  books,  and  quoted  other  frag- 
ments of  popular  songs  and  sayings,  they  placed  none  of 
them  later  than  the  days  of  Solomon. 

§  908.  Besides  the  poems  and  poetic  fragments  and 
sayings  above  noticed,  qnite  a  number  of  others  are 
quoted  in  the  earlier  canonical  books.  Thus  we  have 
the  fine  parable  of  Jotham  (Jud.  ix.  7-15),  which  itself 
contains  expressions  in  poetic  or  rhythmic  form ;  the 
lament  of  Jephthah  (Jud.  xi.  35)  ;  the  riddle  of  Samson 
and  its  pendants  (Jud.  xiv.  14,  18)  ;  his  exultation  after 
victory  (Jud.  xv.  16)  ;  the  song  of  Hannah  (1  Sam.  ii. 
1-10)  ;  Samuel's  denunciation  of  King  Saul  (1  Sam.  xv. 
22-23) ;  the  popular  song  of  David's  prowess  (1  Sam. 
xviii.  7 ;  cf.  xxi.  11,  xxix.  5) ;  David's  lament  over 
Abner  (2  Sam.  iii.  33  f.)  ;  David's  great  triumphal  song 
(2  Sam.  xxii.  ;  cf.  Ps.  xviii.);  and  his  "last  words" 
(2  Sam.  xxiii.  1-7). 1 

§  909.  Of  these  quotations  some  are  obviously  genuine  ; 
others  are  clearly  the  product  of  later  times,  such  as  the 
song  of  Hannah,  and  Samuel's  denunciation.  Others 
are  less  clearly  so,  David's  great  psalm  and  his  "  last 
words."  It  is  with  reluctance  that  any  good  son  of  the 
church  relinquishes  the  belief  in  Davidic  psalms.  But 
many  considerations  combine  to  make  such  a  belief  impos- 
sible. (1)  Those  Psalms  which  are  held  to  be  most  cer- 
tainly Davidic  show  traces  of  a  later  age.  Some  reserve 
to  David  this  same  Ps.  xviii.  (2  Sam.  xxii.)  alone. 
There  is  much  in  this  sublime  poem  to  remind  us  of 
David's  spirit  ;  but  if  the  spirit  is  David's,  the  words  and 
the  elaboration  are  scarcely  his.  A  theophanv  worked 
out  in  detail  (vs.  7-17),  is  a  prophetic  idea  (Mic.  i.  ;  Ilab. 
iii.  ;  Ps.  1.)  to  which  David  and  his  age  were  incompetent. 
The  self-approbation  of  vs.  19-26  is  inappropriate  to  David, 

1  Add  the  sayings  of  1  Sam.  x.  12  (xix.  24),  xxiv.  13,  and  the  obscure 
proverb  of  2  Sain.  v.  8. 


52  QUESTION  OF   DAVIDIC   PSALMS  Book  IX 

who  with  all  his  faults  was  not  ignorant  or  forgetful  of 
fchem.  (2)  The  Psalms  throughout  are  not  merely  relig- 
ious, but  spiritual  ;  David  was  religious  but,  so  far  as  we 
know,  he  was  not  spiritual.  His  habit  of  life  (§  970  ff.) 
Mas  unfavourable  to  piety.  The  "last  words"  (2  Sam. 
xxiii.  1—7),  which  are  not  a  "psalm,"  being  too  individual 
or  autobiographical,  are  more  in  keeping  with  David's 
character,  and  the  personal  groundwork  is  undoubtedly 
his.  It  is  touching  in  its  naivete,  and  the  unadorned 
ruggedness  of  the  style  gives  it  a  flavour  of  originality, 
in  contrast  with  the  smoothness  and  harmony  of  most  of 
the  Psalms,  which  are  the  work  of  trained  disciples  of 
various  schools.  It  may  have  received  its  present  form 
as  part  of  the  collection  which  contained  the  song  of 
Hezekiah  (Isa.  xxxviii.  10-20)  of  three  centuries  later. 
(3)  The  time  of  David  was  unfavourable  to  psalm-mak- 
ing. Even  if  "  psalms  "  were  the  natural  expression  of 
David's  soul  and  heart,  he  could  not  have  written  the 
canonical  Psalms  in  the  age  in  which  he  lived,  any  more 
than  Homer  and  his  colleagues  could  have  written  the 
Prometheus  Vinctus  or  the  Antigone.  A  great  poet, 
such  as  David  was,  may  create  a  literary  style,  but  he 
cannot  create  a  literary  atmosphere,  much  less  a  world 
of  action  and  emotion  which  it  envelops.  The  ruling 
ideas  of  the  Psalms  are  such  conceptions  of  spiritual 
needs,  and  of  Jehovah's  power  to  satisfy  those  needs 
by  his  various  and  abounding  grace,  as  the  religious  peo- 
ple of  David's  time,  from  lack  of  education  and  experi- 
ence, could  not  have  cherished.  (4)  There  is  really  no 
biblical  tradition  to  the  effect  that  David  was  a  psalm 
writer,  the  titles  to  the  Psalms  being  unauthentic.  His- 
torically we  know  of  him  as  a  lyrical  poet  indeed,  but  as 
a  poet  of  his  time  and  circumstances,  especially  moved 
by  love  and  friendship,  and  also  as  a  minstrel  and  a 
patron  of  minstrelsy  (Amos  vi.   5). 

§  910.     The  case  would  seem  at  first  to  be  somewhat 
different  with  Solomon  and  the  Proverbs.     Apophthegms, 


Ch.  Ill,  §  911        LITERARY   FAME   OF   SOLOMON  53 

parables,  pregnant  witty  sayings,  were  indigenous  in 
Israel,  and  even  apart  from  the  evidence  of  the  book  of 
Proverbs,  it  is  doubtful  whether  any  national  literature 
is  so  rich  in  such  utterances  as  is  the  Bible.  This  gift 
of  proverb-making  was  shared  by  several  peoples  more 
or  less  nomadic  to  the  south  and  east  of  Palestine  (cf. 
Prov.  xxx.  and  xxxi.  and  1  K.  iv.  30  f.  EV.),  whose 
genius  must  have  influenced  that  of  the  poets  and  sages 
of  Israel.  The  age  of  Solomon  was,  however,  not  the 
time  of  the  "  Wisdom  "  school  of  Biblical  literature,  which 
combined  religious  and  ethical  earnestness  with  philo- 
sophic reflectiveness.  No  one  of  these  qualities  is  to 
be  expected  from  Solomon  and  his  colleagues,  who  appear 
to  have  been  chiefly  distinguished  for  practical  sagacity 
and  worldly  shrewdness.  Collections,  oral  and  written, 
of  wise  and  witty  observations,  of  parables  like  that  of 
Nathan,  and  of  fables  like  that  of  Jotham,  were  doubt- 
less made  in  Solomon's  time ;  and  the  first  collection  of 
proverbs  having  borne  his  name,  all  subsequent  ones,  of 
which  it  was  the  nucleus  and  the  occasion,  received  a 
similar  honour.  Yet  we  must  beware  of  imagining  that 
very  many  utterances  of  Solomon  and  his  associates  have 
been  transferred  to  the  book  of  Proverbs.  The  Hebrew 
mdshal  is  just  as  comprehensive  a  term  as  is  our  "  prov- 
erb," and  not  every  rndshal  was  religious  or  ethical  in 
its  purpose.  On  the  other  hand,  since  a  good  deal  of 
Proverbs  is  non-religious  and  non-ethical,  and  so  out  of 
harmony  with  the  object  of  the  final  collection,  it  is  probable 
that  some  of  the  sayings  of  this  more  secular  age  were 
borne  along  by  mouth  or  pen  to  the  latest  days. 

§  911.  This  distinction  between  the  secular  and  the 
religious  in  the  development  of  Hebrew  thought  and  life 
is  fundamental  to  any  rational  conception  of  the  history 
of  biblical  literature.  The  antithesis,  as  thus  made,  is 
of  course  purely  modern  and  critical.  The  Hebrews  of 
these  times  were  not  conscious  of  it.  The  sphere  of  reli- 
gion, that  is,  of  association  with  Jehovah,  was  universal 


54  END   OF   THE   PERIOD   OF    HEROIC   POETRY     Rook  IX 

within  the  limits  of  Israel.  His  operation  and  influence 
extended  to  every  domain  of  thought  and  action.  Hence, 
Jehovah  was  supposed  not  merely  to  give  oracles  on  the 
outcome  of  human  enterprises :  He  was  also  the  giver  of 
wisdom  and  of  all  the  endowments  of  the  seer,  the  poet, 
the  warrior,  and  the  ruler.1  A  very  sane  and  wholesome 
belief,  it  will  be  agreed;  but  the  point  now  to  be  made  is 
that  the  men  to  whom  canonical  literature  of  a  high  spirit- 
ual order  is  ascribed  do  not  appear  to  have  lived  within 
that  sphere  of  religious  experience  with  which  this  litera- 
ture is  conversant.  The  time  came  at  length  when  the 
best  minds 2  in  Israel  received,  enjoyed,  and  illustrated 
the  truths  that  nourish  the  life  of  the  spirit,  and  they 
were  the  authors  of  that  which  really  makes  the  Old  Testa- 
ment what  it  has  been  to  the  world. 

§  912.  With  the  reign  of  David  and  Solomon  the  first 
stage  of  Hebrew  literature  reaches  its  close.  This  we 
have  called  (§  883)  the  period  of  heroic  poetry,  or  of  the 
epic  ballad.  The  reader  may  now  see  in  how  far  the  term  is 
justified.  It  will  be  observed  that  though  the  subjects  of 
the  compositions  are  somewhat  varied,  they  all  fall  under 
the  one  head  of  heroic  tradition.  Hence,  also,  there  is 
here  no  artistically  developed  epic 3  like  the  Iliad,  the 
Odyssey,  or  the  JEneid.  Yet  there  is  what  may  be  called  a 
rudimentary  epic,  a  body  of  epical  germs  and  materials, 

1  Compare  Cheyne,  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile  (1898),  p.  131  f. 

2  We  do  Nathan  and  other  contemporaries  of  David  and  Solomon  in- 
justice if  we  assume  that  the  latter  were  the  highest  religious  spirits  of 
the  time.  It  cannot  have  escaped  attention  that  David  and  Solomon, 
the  first  successful  kings  of  Israel,  were  the  only  kings  to  whom  any 
large  portion  of  the  literature  is  ascribed.  Is  not  this  to  be  explained  by 
the  fact  that  their  successors,  men  like  the  rest  of  their  kind,  lived  in  the 
clearer  light  of  history  ? 

3  <  >f  the  higher  epic  there  is  no  genuine  specimen  in  Semitic  literature. 
The  Oilgamesh  ("Nimrod")  epic  of  the  Rabylonians  is  the  nearest 
approach  to  it.  But  there  is  abundance  of  the  ballad  epos,  which,  if  the 
artistic  genius  had  been  present,  might  have  been  organized  into  a  com- 
manding epic  poem.  Cf.  R.  G.  Moultou,  Literary  Study  of  the  Bible 
(1898),  p.  229  f. 


Ch.  Ill,  §  914     VITAL   ELEMENT   IN   EARLY   POEMS  55 

chiefly  in  the  form  of  the  heroic  ballad.  There  is  thus  a 
true  epos  in  the  earliest  Hebrew  literature,  though  it  has 
not  been  unified  and  coordinated  so  as  to  illustrate  a  single 
great  theme.  We  may  sum  up  here  by  recalling  the  char- 
acteristics of  the  literature  of  this  period.  Unlike  that 
of  subsequent  stages,  it  was  mainly,  if  not  wholly,  circu- 
lated by  word  of  mouth.  Another  distinction  is  that  it 
was  very  fragmentary.  Characteristic  also  is  the  con- 
spicuous absence  in  it  of  spiritual  religion  as  a  motive 
power  in  life  and  conduct. 

§  913.  This  last-named  distinction  would  seem  to 
mark  a  cardinal  defect.  And  yet,  from  the  earliest 
known  beginnings,  there  was  in  Hebrew  literature,  as  in 
the  Hebrew  community,  the  germ  of  the  most  powerful 
religion  which  the  world  has  felt  and  known,  an  intel- 
lectual and  moral  impulse,  a  master  idea  destined  for  the 
uplifting  and  propelling  of  the  race.  Since  no  epoch  in 
history  or  literature  is  cut  off  from  a  preceding  epoch,  and 
no  people  develops  except  from  itself,  the  later  Israel 
which  we  know  of  must  have  drawn  some  deep  inspiration 
from  this  first  long  period  of  its  life  and  thought.  And 
that  which  we  find  in  it,  fitful  and  spasmodic,  it  is  true, 
—  like  the  fortune  of  the  tribes  and  the  nation,  — and  j7et 
a  vital  and  inextinguishable  force,  is  Israel's  sense  of 
Jehovah's  guardianship  and  of  its  own  destiny.  Hence, 
we  shall  not  go  far  astray  in  holding  the  most  precious  of 
the  poems  and  the  sayings  of  the  olden  time  to  have  been 
the  "Song  of  the  Exodus,"  the  "Song  of  Deborah,"  the 
"Book  of  the  Wars  of  Jehovah,"  the  "Book  of  Jashar," 
and  the  "Blessing  of  Jacob." 

§  91-4.  To  show  how  this  sentiment  shaped  itself 
towards  worthier  ends,  how  it  gradually  came  to  be  cher- 
ished in  its  most  vitalizing  and  potential  form,  with  an 
elevating  and  inspiring  view  of  Jehovah's  character,  is  the 
task  of  the  historian  of  Hebrew  literature.  Here  it  must 
suffice  to  point  out  when  and  how  the  successive  literary 
periods  were  introduced.     The   next  determining  event 


50  THE   TERM    '-NATIONAL   LITERATURE"       Book  IX 

-was  the  division  of  the  kingdom.  This  catastrophe  and 
the  political  condition  of  the  time  generally  were  unfavour- 
able to  poetical  composition.  But  there  was  much  to 
suggest  the  employment  of  the  new  art  of  prose  writing- 
in  preserving  the  traditions  of  the  tribal  and  national  heroes 
of  the  times  nearly  preceding. 

§  915.  To  appreciate  this  new  development  we  must 
make  an  important  distinction  with  regard  to  the  use- 
ful, but  easily  misunderstood  term  "national"  literature. 
While  the  whole  of  the  early  literature  may  rightly  be 
called  national,  the  inspiration  of  nationality  as  derived 
from  the  united  kingdom  of  David  and  Solomon  (§  900) 
was  rather  that  of  an  ideal  than  of  an  accomplished  fact. 
As  has  been  shown  already  (§  526  f.),  it  was  only  under 
David  that  a  real  union  of  the  tribes  was  officially  fostered, 
and  even  then  nothing  more  was  actually  realized  than  a 
coalescence  of  the  northern  and  southern  divisions.  There 
was,  indeed,  for  a  time  a  national  aspiration.  But  as  far 
as  it  was  a  political  sentiment  it  was  an  outgrowth  of  the 
pre-regal  rather  than  of  the  regal  period.  And  after  the 
division  whatever  there  was  of  patriotic  feeling  was  nour- 
ished only  by  the  common  worship  of  Jehovah  among  the 
children  of  Israel,  which  was  always  the  chief  unifying 
force  throughout  Hebrew  history. 

§  916.  Hence  we  find  (1)  that  in  the  subsequent  lit- 
erature the  history  of  Israel  is  viewed  from  different 
standpoints,  according  as  the  writer  belongs  to  the  north- 
ern or  southern  kingdom;  (2)  that  much  of  the  history- 
making  consists  of  reminiscences  of  tribal  or  sectional 
conditions;  (3)  that  when  the  undivided  kingdom  bulks 
largely  in  the  literature  it  is  more  or  less  idealized ;  (4)  that 
the  national  idea,  if  cherished  at  all,  is  cherished  by  those 
who  are  most  concerned  for  the  religion  of  Jehovah,  the 
God  of  the  whole  of  Israel;  (5)  that  the  insistence  on 
this  idea  necessarily  involves  the  idealizing  of  the  king- 
dom as  it  was  once  united  under  David  —  hence  the  begin- 
ning of  the  Messianic  hope  and  ideal. 


CH.  Ill,  §918  FIRST   CONSECUTIVE   PROSE  57 

§  917.  We  are  now  introduced  to  the  first  consecutive 
prose  writing  that  has  been  preserved  in  the  canonical 
books.  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  central  and 
earliest  portion  of  the  book  of  Judges  (ii.  6-xvi.)  l  was 
the  product  of  a  time  not  much  later  than  the  disruption. 
It  gives  an  account  of  the  deeds  of  the  local  rulers  who 
kept  order,  in  their  several  districts,  between  the  time  of 
the  settlement  and  the  kingdom  (§  187  ff\).  The  recol- 
lections of  their  actions  are,  for  the  most  part,  clear  and 
vivid.  There  is  least  adherence  to  the  literal  style  of 
narrative  in  the  history  of  Samson  (ch.  xiii.-xvi.),  which 
is  a  separate,  elaborate  story  of  the  purely  heroic  type. 
This  circumstance  alone  would  suffice  to  show  that  the 
tales  were  gathered  and  published  in  the  northern  king- 
dom, remote  from  the  scene  of  Samson's  exploits.  But 
the  way  in  which  Judah  is  elsewhere  ignored,  and  is  here 
referred  to  only  as  contributing  a  single  champion,2  puts 
the  matter  be}rond  a  doubt.  We  may  well  suppose  that 
the  popular  stories  of  David's  career,  which  were  so  greatly 
to  the  advantage  of  the  kingdom  of  Judah,  were  matched 
by  the  collectors  of  traditional  tales  with  reminiscences  of 
the  great  deeds  of  the  northern  leaders. 

§  918.  That  the  composition  of  these  stories  in  their 
first  published  form  is  separated  by  a  considerable  inter- 
val from  that  of  the  preceding  cycle,  appears  plainly  from 
the  fact  that  they  are  written  in  simple  prose,  and  that 

1  That  is,  apart  from  the  song  of  Deborah  (§  897)  and  the  phrases 
introductory  to  each  section,  with  other  additions  by  the  Deuteronomic 
compiler  (§  1301),  for  whose  agency  here  sec  Driver,  Intr.,  and  Moore, 
Commentary  on  Judges,  pp.  xix  ft'.,  and  the  authorities  quoted  in  these 
works.  Moore  dates  the  older  of  the  two  sources,  which  he  identities 
(after  Schrader,  Stade,  and  Budde)  with  J  and  E  respectively,  in  the  firsl 
half  of  the  ninth  century  b.c.  This  is  probably  too  late  to  afford  a  con- 
nection with  the  stream  of  living  tradition  which  comprises  the  narrative 
of  the  greater  judges. 

2  Perhaps  the  story  of  Samson  is  introduced  from  the  desire  to  give 
some  place  (cf.  iii.  '-'>\  I  to  the  wars  with  the  Philistines,  which  were  so 
important  in  Israel's  history,  and  in  which  the  northern  tribes  played  no 
very  distinguished  part. 


58       HEROIC   PROSE :    LIVES   OF   SAUL   AND   DAVID     Book  IX 

the  style  is  already  that  of  classic  narrative  Hebrew. 
From  the  nature  of  the  subject  and  the  heroic  style  gener- 
ally we  must,  however,  assign  this  main  part  of  Judges 
to  the  period  of  the  prose  epic  or  "heroic  prose  "  (§  883). 
That  a  prosaic  garb  was  adopted  instead  of  a  poetical  was 
due  to  the  fact  that  the  age  was  prosaic.  The  land  was 
troubled;  but  it  was  not  excited,  only  perplexed  and 
baffled.  The  old  ideals  were  shattered;  and,  especially  in 
the  northern  kingdom,  pressing  problems  of  rehabilita- 
tion and  readjustment  left  no  room  for  the  play  of  the 
genius  of  romance.  We  may  infer  from  the  fact  that 
the  song  of  Deborah  alone  is  given  in  the  poetic  form 1 
that  the  narratives  were  of  later  composition. 

§  919.  Of  kindred  style  and  origin  is  the  story  of 
David's  reign  and  his  personal  life  as  king,  which  was 
composed  in  Jerusalem,  perhaps  at  a  somewhat  later  date 
than  the  tales  of  the  judges.  This  narrative  embraces 
almost  all  of  2  Sam.  v.-vii.  and  ix.-xx.  It  is  an  extraor- 
dinarily faithful  and  vivid  picture  of  one  of  the  most 
interesting  and  memorable  kingly  lives.  A  distinct  work 
is  the  history  of  Saul  (1  Sam.  ix.,  x.  1-16,  xi.,  xiii.,  xiv.). 
Some  uncertainty  hangs  over  the  time  and  place  of  the 
origin  of  this  section.  Yet  the  freshness  and  naturalness 
of  the  narrative,  and  its  presentation  of  the  older  view  of 
the  establishment  of  the  kingdom,  that  it  was  a  necessary 
movement  approved  by  Jehovah  (ctr.  1  Sam.  viii.  and  xii.), 
point  to  a  comparatively  early  date.  More  doubtful  is  the 
position  of  the  remainder  of  the  history  of  David,  within 
which  the  Jerusalem  court  history  has  been  imbedded,  the 
whole  running  from  1  Sam.  xvi.  to  2  K.  ii.  The  refer- 
ence to  "kings  of  Judah  "  in  1  Sam.  xxvii.  6  would  seem 

1  The  sayings  of  Samson  (Jud.  xiv.  14,  18  ;  xv.  16)  are  merely  inci- 
dental to  the  narrative.  Yet  they  are  significant  as  illustrating  the  point 
made  above  as  to  the  special  character  of  the  tradition  and  story  of 
Samson.  It  is  to  be  noted  that  it  is  only  in  the  old  heroic  epos  that  the 
characters  speak  poetically.  So  in  the  wisdom  fables  of  India,  (Ilito- 
pade§a,  Panchatantra,  etc.),  the  narrative  is  prose,  while  the  speakers  talk 
in  verse. 


Cu.  Ill,  §  920  BOOK   OF   THE   COVENANT  59 

to  bring  the  time  pretty  well  down  below  the  disruption. 
It  has  also  been  argued  that  the  absence  of  partiality  for 
either  of  the  kings  or  for  the  institution  of  the  kingdom 
points  to  a  later  period.  We  must  content  ourselves 
meanwhile  with  claiming  for  the  first  half  century  after 
the  schism  the  history  of  Saul  and  the  Jerusalem  biog- 
raphy of  David  as  king.  Of  somewhat  later  date  is  the 
story  of  the  fortunes  of  the  Ark  (1  Sam.  iv.-vi.),  cen- 
tering in  Shiloh  and  its  sanctuary,  and  composed  in 
northern  Israel. 

§  920.  We  have  now  to  deal  with  a  different  order  of 
composition,  the  first  "Book  of  the  Covenant,"  contained 
in  Ex.  xx.  22-xxiii.  Most  critics  assign  the  work  to  the 
great  E  document  (§  923  ff.).  But  E  was  probably  not 
its  first  compiler:  it  bears  the  mark  of  a  prior  juridical 
codification.  Much  of  its  contents,  therefore,  is  of  older 
date,  how  old  we  cannot  say.  In  any  case  it  is  a  mistake 
to  make  the  time  of  David  the  absolute  terminus  a  quo;1 
for  the  period  of  the  judges  was  one  in  which  the  establish- 
ing of  precedents  ("statutes")  for  new  conditions  and 
emergencies  was  an  absolute  necessity.  The  laws  repre- 
sent the  growth  of  a  simple  pastoral  and  especially  agri- 
cultural jurisprudence,  and  the  absence  of  regulations 
concerning  the  special  relations  of  city  life  show  that  the 
bulk  of  them  were  formulated,  or  at  least  practised,  before 
the  monarchy.  They  are  of  priceless  value,  not  simply 
for  the  legislation  itself,  but  also  for  the  proof  they  afford 
that  Israel  was  not  a  wholly  ill-regulated  society  under 
the  judges.2  Now,  if  such  laws  existed  long  before  their 
final  compilation,  should  they  not  be  treated  like  the  heroic 
poetry  as  the  literary  records  of  earlier  times?     No;  for 

1  As  is  done  by  Cornill,  Einl*  (1890),  p.  69. 

2  The  book  of  Judges  is  a  reminder  that  the  Hebrew  historical  narra- 
tive is  selective  and  dramatically  one-sided  and  extreme.  Critics  have 
thought  that  in  my  sketcli  of  a  well-to-do  householder  of  the  later  period 
of  the  judges  (§  50:}  ff.)  I  have  transferred  to  this  time  the  conditions  of 
a  later  age.  But  I  avowedly  chose  a  favourable  specimen  of  his  class,  and 
his  environment  is  not  pictured  in  the  brightest  colours. 


GO  COMBINED   LAWS  AND   EXHORTATIONS       Book  IX 

laws  were  not  "literature"  (cf.  §  899).  They  were  not 
published  even  by  word  of  mouth  at  the  time  of  their 
first  observance  (cf.  §  882).  They  were  customs,  usages, 
prescriptions,  which  for  ages  needed  no  outward  authen- 
tication. The  several  courts  which  put  them  in  force, 
whether  of  elders,  judges,  or  priests  of  the  local  sanctu- 
aries (§  486  ff.),  were  themselves  the  embodiment  of  law 
or  "direction,"  as  representatives  of  Jehovah  ;  and  it  was 
only  some  higher  or  wider  necessity  that  led  to  their 
collection  and  publication. 

§  921.  Moreover,  the  laws  are,  in  the  strict  sense,  a 
digest  or  abstract  of  the  best  rules  of  procedure  written  in 
the  terse  and  business-like  form  that  befits  an  age  devoid 
of  preachers  and  moralists,  and  thus  distinguished  from 
their  successor,  the  Deuteronomic  code.  Yet  we  must 
make  a  distinction.  Those  laws  that  were  really  practi- 
cal and  operative  do  not  occupy  nearly  all  of  the  document. 
There  is  at  least  one  other  large  element  comprising  prin- 
ciples and  appeals  in  the  guise  of  ordinances.  Thus  we 
have  the  commands  not  to  wrong  or  oppress  a  "stranger" 
(xxii.  21;  cf.  §  552),  not  to  afflict  a  widow  or  orphan 
(v.  22),  followed  by  reasons  grounded  in  the  will  (or  the 
character)  of  Jehovah  (cf.  vs.  26  f.);  and  these  are  not 
coordinate  with  the  preceding  enactments.  They  are 
rather  of  the  tone  and  spirit  of  the  long  hortatory 
appendix  (xxiii.  20-83). 

§  922.  This  combination  is  striking.  What  does  it 
imply?  Two  general  explanations  are  possible.  The 
object  of  the  publication  was  either  literary  and  educative 
or  else  it  was  intended  as  an  authoritative  manual  with 
official  sanction.  In  the  one  case  the  compiler  and  editor 
was  one  of  a  guild  or  class  of  thinkers  and  writers  imbued 
with  high  patriotic  and  religious  aims.  In  the  other 
case  the  instigators  were  the  king  and  nobles.  At  first 
sight  the  latter  view  is  the  more  plausible,  for  the  aim 
of  the  publication  seems  a  practical  one.  On  account  of 
the  apparent  influence  of  E,  we  then  actually  think  of  the 


Ch.  EH,  §  92:3         CRITERIA   OF    RELATIVE   AGE  01 

northern  kingdom  ( §  930)  ;  and  the  era  of  reconstruction 
and  readjustment  under  Omri  (§  212)  seems  a  suitable 
occasion.1  But  a  closer  view  makes  the  other  hypothesis 
seem  more  tenable.  Taken  as  a  whole,  the  work  is  too 
advanced  ethically  and  religiously  for  that  era  or  any 
proximate  date.  Making  all  due  allowance  for  the  defec- 
tive character  of  the  narrative  accounts  of  these  times,  it 
remains  certain  (cf.  §  979  ft.)  that  the  religion  and  morality 
of  the  leading  men  in  either  kingdom  were  still  below  the 
stage  of  theory  and  propagandism ;  and  the  publication  of 
the  code  in  its  complete  form  under  their  auspices  is 
therefore  highly  improbable.  On  the  other  hand,  the  sen- 
timental, non-practical  sections  were  superadded  for  a  pur- 
pose. They  are  already  beyond  the  scope  and  intent  oi. 
the  effective  statutes  which,  as  has  been  shown,2  are 
merely  the  best  jurisprudence  of  a  simple,  half-patriarcha 
societ}^  and  not  necessarily  the  outcome  of  exceptiona. 
moral  and  religious  sentiments.  In  fact,  as  will  appeal 
in  the  more  obvious  case  of  Deuteronomy,  the  Old  Testa- 
ment legislation  as  published  never  had  statutory  validity 
or  a  directly  practical  purpose.  It  was  intended  to  con- 
nect the  highest  law  and  justice  of  the  day  with  the 
fountain  of  law  and  justice,  Jehovah  the  true  God  of  Israel. 
Hence  we  have  not  yet  arrived  at  the  all-important  point 
where  we  can  find  the  higher  principle  of  life  and  thought 
in  active  operation.  For  this  we  must  turn  to  the  two 
great  works  J  and  E. 

§  923.  J  and  E  are  the  somewhat  vague  and  mystical, 
but  convenient  designation  of  the  remains  of  two  documents 
found  interwoven  with  one  another  in  the  Hexateuch. 
They  were,  when  complete,  two  histories  (to  use  the 
modern  term)  of  Israel,  from  the  earliest  times  till  the 
settlement  in  Canaan.  Neither  of  them  appears  to  have 
been  originally  a  single  composition,  and  each  of  them 

1  Or,  if  the  treatise  be  assigned  (less  reasonably)  to  J  and  the  king- 
dom of  Judah,  we  will  naturally  think  of  the  reformation  of  Asa  (1  K.  xv.). 

2  See  W.  R.  Smith,  OTJC.2  p.  340 1L 


62  "PROPHETIC   HISTORIES/'   J   AND   E  Book  IX 

shows  evidence  of  growth  and  of  internal  combination  and 
adjustment.  Moreover,  each  of  them  had  taken  up  into 
itself,  at  least  by  the  time  it  assumed  its  final  form,  some 
of  the  compositions  already  mentioned  in  our  survey;  thus 
it  is  probably  E  that  contains  the  first  "Book  of  the  Cove- 
nant"' just  spoken  of;  while  J  has,  among  other  things, 
the  oldest  traditions  of  Israel  and  the  race  generally. 
The}'  were,  however,  combined  in  one  complete  and  sepa- 
rate work  (J  E)  before  the  publication  of  Deuteronomy. 
They  are  marked  off  by  striking  characteristics  from  P, 
with  which  they  have  many  topics  in  common.  More 
properly,  P  is  marked  off  plainly  from  them  as  the  product 
of  a  different  movement  and  stamped  with  the  impress  of 
a  much  later  age.  J  and  E  have  strong  mutual  resem- 
blances and,  although  produced  within  different  environ- 
ments, are  evidently  the  result  of  the  same  or  closely 
associated  literary  and  religious  impulses.  Yet  the  dif- 
ferences in  points  of  view  and  in  purpose  are  so  real  and 
important  that  no  single  term,  except  the  very  general 
phrase  "prophetic  histories,"  has  been  devised  to  describe 
them.  This  designation  distinguishes  them  from  the 
priestly  document  (P),  and  also  implies  that  they  were 
completed,  if  not  entirely  compiled,  in  the  age  of  the  great 
prophets,  and  embody  some  distinctively  prophetic  ideas. 
§  924.  J,  however,  is  so  deeply  imbued  with  the 
prophetic  spirit  that  the  name  is  sometimes  applied  to  it 
alone.  Its  chief  outward  mark  is  its  use  of  the  name 
Yahwe  (Jehovah)  for  the  Divine  Being  from  the  begin- 
ning, while  E  is  equally  'consistent  in  the  employment  of 
Elohim;  hence  the  term  Yahwistic  or  Jehovistic  applied 
to  the  document  and  the  writer  as  distinguished  from 
Elohistic.  To  the  combined  history  in  the  Pentateuch 
drawn  from  J,  E,  and  P,1  J  furnishes  the  most  continuous 

1  Naturally  authorities  differ  with  regard  to  the  assignment  of  many 
passages  to  their  sources,  but  these  passages  are  seldom  of  great  length 
or  importance,  and  a  presentation  of  the  results  of  criticism  is  quite  feasi- 
ble and  very  helpful.     A  detailed  exhibition  by  chapter  and  verse  of  the 


Cn.  Ill,  §  926  CONTENTS   OF  J  63 

stoiy.  There  are,  indeed,  no  important  breaks  in  his  narra- 
tive, as  far  as  the  career  of  the  main  characters  and  of  the 
nation  as  a  whole  is  described,  though  significant  facts 
are  supplied  by  E,  even  more  than  by  P,  which  bulks  so 
much  more  largely  and  deals  more  with  institutions  and 
their  founders.  E,  indeed,  although  an  original  docu- 
ment of  immense  importance,  performs  in  our  present  text 
a  function  mainly  supplementary.  It  does  not  begin  till 
Gen.  xv.  Its  most  valuable  contributions  relate  to  the 
legislative  history  and  material. 

§  925.  A  fairly  good  idea  of  the  contents  and  spirit  of 
J  and  E  may  be  gained  from  the  statement  of  some  of  the 
topics  dealt  with  by  each  of  them  exclusively.  Thus  from 
J,  as  already  indicated  (§  885),  we  have  the  account  of 
the  creation  of  the  world  of  men  (as  distinguished  from 
that  of  "the  heavens  and  the  earth"  by  P).  From  him 
alone  proceeds  the  story  of  the  probation  and  fall  of  "the 
man  "  and  his  "helpmeet,"  of  the  first  sacrifice,  the  first 
murder,  and  the  career  of  Cain  and  his  descendants  (Gen. 
ii.  4-iv.).  To  the  accounts  of  the  Flood,  the  promise  to 
Noah,  the  national  or  racial  genealogies  (Gen.  vi.-x.) 
J  and  P  have  both  contributed;  but  the  settlement  of 
Babylonia  (x.  8-12)  and  the  dispersion  thence  of 
the  human  race  (Gen.  xi.  1-9)  are  described  only  by  J. 
From  him,  too,  we  have  the  whole  narrative  of  the  rela- 
tions of  Abraham  with  Lot  and  the  cities  of  the  Plain 
(Gen.  xviii.,  xix.),  the  romantic  story  of  the  quest  of  a 
wife  for  Isaac  (Gen.  xxiv.),  and  nearly  all  that  is  told 
of  the  earlier  life  of  Jacob  and  Esau  (most  of  Gen.  xxv.- 
xxvii.),  the  episode  of  Judah's  family  history  (Gen. 
xxxviii.),  and  a  large  portion,  partly  duplicated  with  E, 
of  the  stoiy  of  Joseph,  particularly  the  actions  and  con- 
respective  contributions  of  J,  E,  and  I'  to  the  Pentateuch  appears  in 
Cornill.  Einl.*  (1896),  p.  10  f.  The  analysis  of  Genesis,  Exodus,  and 
Numbers,  with  a  discussion,  is  given  by  Driver.  Tntr.9  (1897),  pp.  14-17, 
22-24,  28-32,  G0-G9.  Leviticus  is  universally  given  entire  to  1',  and 
nothing  of  Deuteronomy  is  credited  to  any  of  the  three. 


64  J   AND   E    OFTEN    INSEPARABLE  Book  IX 

versations  in  which  Judah  takes  part.  The  Blessing  of 
Jacob  (Gen.  xlix.  2-27)  was  inserted  by  J  (§  005).  In 
Exodus,  as  a  whole,  J  is  less  prominent  than  either  E  or  P. 
He  is  most  largely  represented  in  the  account  of  the  pre- 
liminaries to  the  migration  from  Egypt,  and  of  the  flight.1 
But  in  Numbers,  which  is  mainly  an  institutional  and 
statistical  book,  both  J  and  E  are  overshadowed  b}r  P. 
When  they  appear  it  is  usually  difficult  to  distinguish  the 
parts  of  the  combined  narrative  (JE).  From  them  come 
the  most  interesting  sections  of  Numbers:  Hobab's  guid- 
ance of  Israel,  the  murmuring  of  the  people  at  Taberah, 
the  appointment  of  seventy  elders,  and  the  complaint  of 
Aaron  and  Miriam  against  Moses  (ehs.  x.  2'J-xii.)2  and 
the  strictly  historical  or  narrative  portion  of  the  book 
between  the  departure  from  Kadesh  Barnea  to  the  settle- 
ment of  the  two  and  a  half  tribes  east  of  the  Jordan, 
including  the  extracts  from  ancient  poems  and  the  episode 
of  Balaam  (chs.  xx.-xxv.  6,  and  most  of  eh.  xxxii.).3  In 
the  book  of  Joshua,  which,  as  part  of  an  original  Hexa- 
teuch,  is  properly  an  appendix  to  the  Pentateuch,  and  in 
which  the  distinction  of  the  sources  is  very  difficult  to 
make,4  J  E  is  to  be  taken  as  practically  one  document, 
comprising  most  of  the  story  of  the  conquest  of  Canaan 
(chs.  i.-xii.),5  while  the  account  of  its  allotment  among 
the  tribes  (chs.  xiii.-xxiv.)  is  chiefly  the  work  of  P. 

§  92G.  The  most  important  contributions  of  E  may 
be  summarily  indicated:  an  essential  part  of  Abraham's 
vision  of  Israel's  possession  of  Canaan  (Gen.  xv.,  not 
easily  separable  from  J),  the  exposure  of  Sarah  at  Gerar, 
the  expulsion  and  relief  of  Hagar,  the  covenant  at  Beer- 
sheba,    the  trial  of   Abraham's   faith   (Gen.    xx.-xxii.), 

1  See  below  (§  920)  what  is  said  of  E  in  this  connection. 

2  Ch.  xii.  is  generally  thought  to  belong  to  E. 

3  Ch.  xxiv.  probably  belongs  mainly  to  J,  and  chs.  xxi.-xxiii.  to  E. 

4  Cf.  Cornill,  Einl*  p.  80  f. 

5  Very  important,  however,  are  the  Deuteronomic  additions,  compris- 
ing the  whole  of  ch.  i.  and  frequent  later  insertions ;  see  Driver,  p.  104  If. 


Ch.  Ill,  §  926  CONTENTS  OF  E  65 

Jacob's  vision  and  vow  at  Bethel  (Gen.  xxviii.  11  ff.), 
the  ascription  of  Jacob's  prosperity  to  divine  providence, 
the  flight  of  Jacob  and  his  wives  from  Laban,  and  the 
covenant  between  Jacob  and  Laban  (most  of  ch.  xxxi.), 
Jacob's  renunciation  of  "strange  gods,"  and  his  second 
visit  to  Bethel  (Gen.  xxxv.  1-8),  and  the  death  of  Rachel 
(Gen.  xxxv.  16-20),  large  portions  of  the  story  of 
Joseph,1  Jacob's  blessing  of  Ephraim  and  Manasseh  (Gen. 
xlviii.),  Joseph's  formal  forgiveness  of  his  brethren,  and 
his  death  (Gen.  1.  15  ff.).  In  Exodus  comes  first  E's  ver- 
sion 2  of  the  events  leading  to  the  departure  from  Egypt, 
apparently  resting  on  a  distinct  tradition  and  enhancing 
the  providential  character  of  the  deliverance  by  emphasiz- 
ing the  feebleness  and  dependence  of  Israel  and  the 
haughty  sternness  of  Pharaoh.  E  inserts,  also,  the  song 
of  the  Exodus  (§  890).  He  alone  tells  of  the  contest 
with  Amalek  (ch.  xvii.)  and  the  attempt  to  organize  the 
tribes  on  an  administrative  principle  (Ex.  xviii. ;  cf. 
§455  ff.).  He  is  the  principal  source  of  what  is  told 
of  the  primary  Sinaitic  legislation  —  its  preliminaries 
(ch.  xix.),  the  Decalogue  (ch.  xx. ;  §  892),  the  first  Book 
of  the  Covenant  (chs.  xxi.-xxiii. ;  §  920),  the  narrative  of 
the  golden  calf,  and  the  appointment  of  Joshua  as  min- 
ister to  Moses  (chs.  xxxii.  1-xxxiii.  II).3  Of  E  in 
Numbers  and  Joshua  enough  for  our  present  purpose  has 
been  said  in  the  last  paragraph,  but  we  must  not  over- 
look the  poetical  extracts  in  Num.  xxi.  (§  894)  or  the 
"Blessing  of  Moses"  in  Deut.  xxxiii.  (§  935). 

1  For  a  skilful  exhibition  of  the  points  of  difference,  with  a  citation  of 
the  passages  assignable  to  each  of  the  sources,  see  Driver,  pp.  17-19. 

2  Developed  by  Bacon  in  Triple  Tradition  of  tin-  Exodus  (1894),  fol- 
lowing up  his  articles  in  the  Journal  of  Biblical  Literature  (1890-1893). 
His  analysis  Bhows  the  antithesis  between  .1  and  E  to  be  much  greater 
than  had  been  supposed.  J,  for  example,  makes  Israel  in  Egypt  to  have 
been  prosperous,  socially  important,  and  numerous. 

3  The  remainder  of  tins  legislative  section  (xxxiii.  12-xxxiv.  28)  is  an 
intricate  combination  of  J  and  E,  except  perhaps  the  "  Little  Book  of  the 
Covenant  "  (xxxiv.  11-28),  which  is  by  most  critics  assigned  to  J. 

F 


66  CHARACTERISTICS   OF   J  Book  IX 


§  927.  A  glance  at  the  passages  above  cited  will  reveal 
the  main  characteristics  of  J  and  E.  J  is  the  story  teller 
and  the  dramatist  of  the  Old  Testament.  For  vividness, 
selective  and  graphic  skill,  and  touching  simplicity,  he 
is  unsurpassed  in  any  literature.  He  is  at  once  the  most 
realistic  and  the  most  sympathetic  of  narrators;  witness 
the  trembling  of  Isaac,  the  cry  of  Esau  (Gen.  xxvii.  33  f.), 
and  the  appeal  of  Judah  (Gen.  xliv..  18  ff.).  Nothing 
human  is  alien  or  repulsive  to  him  (Gen.  xxx.  14  ff. ; 
xxxviii.);  and  he  is  equally  at  home  with  the  divine. 
Thus  he  is  the  most  anthropomorphic  of  Old  Testament 
writers  in  his  representations  of  the  Deity.  "  He  fashions, 
breathes  into  man  the  breath  of  life,  plants,  places,  takes, 
sets,  brings,  closes  up,  builds,  etc.  (Gen.  ii.  7,  8,  15,  19, 
21,  22),  and  even  walks  in  the  garden  (iii.  8).  He  comes 
down  to  see  the  tower  built  by  man  and  to  confound  their 
speech  (Gen.  xi.  5,  7;  so  xviii.  21;  Ex.  iii.  8),  visits 
the  earth  in  visible  form  (Gen.  xviii.,  xix.),  meets  Moses 
and  seeks  to  slay  him  (Ex.  iv.  24),  takes  off  the  chariot 
wheels  of  the  Egyptians  (xiv.  25)." *  His  moral  and 
religious  teaching  is  well  characterized  by  Dillmann : 2 
"He  is  distinguished  by  the  abundance  of  choice  and 
instructive  thoughts,  of  weighty  ethical  and  religious 
truths,  which  he  knows  how  to  breathe  into  his  legendary 
stories,  or  rather  to  draw  from  them,  without  detracting 
from  the  poetic  flavour  and  childlike  simplicity  of  expres- 
sion which  they  cariw  with  them  from  their  currency  upon 
the  lips  of  the  people.  Among  the  three  narrators  he 
shows  the  deepest  knowledge  of  the  nature,  origin,  and 
progress  of  sin  among  mankind,  of  God's  counteracting 
work,  of  his  plan  of  salvation  (Gen.  iii.  15  f.  ;  v.  29; 
viii.  21  f . ;  ix.  26  f . ;  xii.  2  f . ;  xviii.  19),  of  the  choice 
of  God's  chosen  instruments  and  their  education  towards 

1  Driver.  IntrS'  pp.  0.  121.     The  italics  are  our  author's. 

2  Di'  Genesis  erkldrt  (4th  ed.),  p.  xiii.  See  also  the  more  detailed 
analysis  by  Dillmann,  in  his  Numeri,  Dent,  und  Josua  (1886),  p.  629  1.. 
quoted  by  Driver,  p.  120. 


Ch.  Ill,  §928  CHARACTERISTICS   OF   E  67 

faith,   obedience,  and  rightful   living,   of   the  destiny  of 
Israel  to  bring  about  the  saving  of  the  nations." 

§  928.  E  has  not  the  literary  charm  and  power  wielded 
by  J,  though  he  is  not  deficient  in  narrative  skill  (Gen. 
xxii.).  He  has  a  fondness  for  details;  uses  freely  the 
names  of  persons  and  places.  He  does  not  so  much  try 
to  tell  a  story  as  to  keep  alive  the  occasion  and  the  remem- 
brance <3f  beliefs  and  traditions.  Hence,  he  is  specially 
attracted  by  the  ancient  sanctuaries,  particularly  those  of 
the  northern  kingdom,  and  at  the  same  time  gives  a  chief 
place  to  the  laws  and  customs  that  have  grown  up  under 
the  theocracy.  Thus,  while  J  is  most  deeply  concerned 
about  the  ideas  or  principles  of  Jehovah's  government  and 
revelation,  E  is  set  upon  exhibiting  the  various  forms  and 
modes  in  which  God  rules  and  manifests  himself  to  his 
people.  On  the  one  hand  we  have  from  him  the  history  of 
national  organization  and  legislation  (Ex.  xviii.-xxiii.), 
and  on  the  other  a  record  of  the  indirect  disclosures  of 
dreams  and  visions  of  the  night  and  voices  from  heaven 
(Gen.  xv. ;  xxii.  11,  15;  xxviii.  11  ft. ;  xxxvii.  5  ft.),  as 
contrasted  with  the  bodily  appearances  of  Jehovah  set 
before  us  by  J.  Though  not  so  deeply  imbued  with  the 
prophetic  spirit  as  J,  he  represents  the  progress  of  insti- 
tutional religion  up  to  the  highest  pru-Deuteronomic 
level.  In  his  story  of  Jacob  he  speaks  of  the  patriarch 
erecting  a  pillar  as  a  Bethel 1  or  "  residence  of  God  "  (Gen. 
xxviii.  18,  22)  on  the  site  of  the  most  important  sanc- 
tuary of  the  northern  kingdom ;  yet  he  records,  also,  how 
Jacob  put  away  the  "alien  gods  "  from  his  household  (Gen 
xxxv,  2  ff. ;  cf.  Josh.  xxiv.  14  ff.).  Abraham  is  to  him 
a  "prophet"  (Gen.  xx.  7),  though  of  a  very  unspiritual 
type;  while  in  his  sketch  of  the  career  of  Moses  the  pro- 
phetic ideal  is  more  nearly  reached  (Ex.  xxxiii.  11;  Num. 

1  Greek  ^ahv\os  and  patrvXiov,  a  sacred  stone  (in  Damascius  and  oth- 
ers), came  from  Canaanitic  Phoenicia.  On  the  worship  of  sacred  stones, 
see  especially  \V.  R.  Smith,  RS.2  p.  207  ff.  The  literature  of  this  aspect  of 
"Bethel"  is  given  in  DR.  I,  278  note. 


68  J   A   COMPOSITE    WORK  Book  IX 

xii.  6  ff.).     Above  all,  he  is  concerned  to  set  forth  God's 
providential  guidance  and  control  of  his  people. 

§  929.  J  is  a  composite  work.  This  is  not  the  place 
for  the  proof  of  this  position  by  a  detailed  analysis,1  but 
considerations  of  a  broader  kind  maybe  urged:  (1)  There 
is  evidence  of  divergent  views  in  J  on  matters  of  fact. 
Among  the  instances  are  the  following.  In  Gen.  ix.  18  f. 
Shem,  Ham,  and  Japhet  are  the  ancestors  of  all  succeed- 
ing mankind,  while  in  vs.  25-27  Canaan,  as  son  (or  repre- 
sentative) of  Ham,  is  coordinated  with  Shem  and  Japhet, 
as  the  head  of  a  distinct  people.  In  Gen.  iv.  20-22  con- 
temporaries of  the  writer  seem  to  be  descended  from  Cain- 
ites,  and  therefore  not  from  the  sole  survivors  of  the  Flood. 
This  with  the  survival  of  Nephilirn  (Num.  xiii.  33,  J  E; 
cf.  Gen.  vi.  4)  seems  to  show  that  an  authority  was  used 
by  J  who  did  not  take  account  of  the  destruction  by  the 
Deluge.  (2)  Such  a  startling  break  in  continuous  dis- 
course as  is  shown  in  Gen.  xxxviii.  indicates  a  direct  sec- 
ondary contributor  to  J's  narrative  of  the  patriarchs.  This 
is  not  a  case  of  the  insertion  of  older  compositions,  such  as 
those  frequently  found  in  E  or  such  as  the  Blessing  of 
Jacob  in  J  himself.  The  material  has  been  adapted  by  the 
hand  of  the  responsible  writer  of  the  book.  (3)  This  in- 
stance suggests  a  more  general  observation.  The  moral  and 
sentimental  interval  between  Gen.  xxxviii.  and  the  his- 
tory of  Joseph  in  the  context  is  but  one  of  many  apparent 
literary  inconsistencies  in  the  work.  What  is  the  expla- 
nation ?  Not  merely  that  J  was  a  realistic  writer  of  wide 
human  sympathies  (§  927),  but  besides  that  the  materials 

1  See  the  resiuiv'  in  Cornill,  Eiril.*  pp.  42-46,  tracing  the  brief 
history  of  the  question,  and  cf.  Kautzsch,  Abriss,  p.  153  f.  The 
inquiry  so  far  has  been  systematically  pursued  only  in  connection  with 
Genesis.  Budde's  Biblische  Urgeschichte  (1883)  has  given  the  strongest 
impulse  to  the  discussion.  See  Konig,  Einh-itung  (1893),  pp.  197-200, 
for  a  conservative  view.  Agreement  as  to  the  sections  and  their  limits 
has  not  been  reached.  Driver,  in  his  Intr.  (p.  123),  scarcely  touches  the 
subject.  The  question  is  one  of  importance  from  its  bearing  on  the  his- 
tory of  prophetic  ideas. 


Ch.  Ill,  §930      COMPOSITION   AND   ORIGIN   OF  E  69 

of  his  book  came  from  different  sources  in  different  regions 

of  Palestine,  and  also  from  different  ages.  It  may  be  said 
that  no  writer  would  introduce  into  his  work  what  was 
not  in  harmony  with  his  own  ideals,  and  that  such  scru- 
ples, if  justified,  should  also  throw  doubt  on  the  final 
unity  and  completeness  of  the  work.  Not  necessarily  so; 
for  the  Old  Testament  compilers  habitually  made  use  of 
various  traditions  which  attained  a  certain  canonical 
standing  through  venerable  age  and  ancestral  associations, 
and  what  the  later  Jehovistic  circle  might  not  have 
appropriated  from  current  literature  it  adopted  and  util- 
ized from  the  old.1  The  composite  character  of  E, 
though  extremely  probable,  is  more  difficult  of  proof;2 
nor  is  the  question  of  such  biblical  importance  as  that  of 
the  composition  of  J.  It  is  understood  that  E  has  trans- 
ferred bodily  much  older  literature,  chiefly  poetical  and 
legislative  (§894,  925  f.)  ;  but  the  narrative  portion  does 
not  lend  itself  to  obvious  partition. 

§  930.  It  is  the  unanimous  opinion  of  critics  that  E  was 
composed  in  the  northern  kingdom.  The  prominence  of 
Joseph,  Ephraim,  and  Reuben  (as  contrasted  with  Judah 
in  J)  and  such  sacred  places  as  Bethel,  Shechem,  and 
Beersheba  (cf.  Am.  v.  5  ;  viii.  14  ;  1  K.  xix.  3),  with 
many  other  indications,  point  surely  to  this  conclusion. 
Nor  can  the  approximate  time  of  composition  be  a  ques- 
tion  of  much  uncertainty.  (1)  E's  religious  position  is 
far  beyond  that  of  the  time  of  the  early  kings,  while  there 
is  no  evidence  that  the  author  had  come  under  the  influ- 
ence of  either  Amos  or  Ilosea.  Thus  the  time  would  not 
be    later    than    770-760    B.C.      (2)   The    early    turbulent 


1  This  is  little  to  be  wondered  at  when  Samson  is  cited  as  one  of  the 
ancient  worthies  even  in  the  later  New  Testament  times  (Ileb.  xi.  32). 
Have  we  not  also  our  "  Saint  "  David  ? 

-  Cornill,  Einl*  pp.  39-41,  following  in  the  main  the  lead  of  Kuenen, 
approves  of  a  division  into  E1  and  K-.  So  far  there  has  been  no  genera] 
acceptance  of  Kuenen's  results,  though  his  discussion  has  opened  a  prom- 
ising field  of  inquiry. 


70  DATE   OF   E  — ORIGIN   OF   J  Book  IX 

times  of  the  kingdom  are  past;  their  history  lies  before 
the  writer;  the  traditions  have  been  gathered  up  and  are 
grouped  around  definite  persons  and  places;  legislative 
digests  have  been  made.  The  date  therefore  is  probably 
after  the  Syrian  wars.  (3)  There  is  in  the  book  a  con- 
sciousness of  national  strength  and  achievement  with  no 
note  of  trouble  to  mar  the  harmony  of  the  retrospect. 
The  decline  of  the  kingdom  had  therefore  not  begun. 
All  this  points  to  the  first  part  of  the  reign  of  Jero- 
boam II.  (1)  While  linguistic  marks  in  general  are  not 
obvious,  there  is  one  of  high  significance.  In  Genesis  E 
uses  "Yaliwe"  for  the  Deity  not  at  all,  and  even  after  the 
declaration  of  Ex.  iii.  14  f.  very  sparingly.  Whatever  may 
have  been  the  motive  of  the  preferential  use  of  "Elohiin,"1 
there  is  no  doubt  that  an  age  of  theological  reflection  had 
been  reached;  and  that  while  the  book  may  have  been 
composed  by  a  single  writer,  he  was  a  member  of  a  sort 
of  Elohistic  school.  Taken  all  in  all,  the  evidence  points 
to  very  nearly  770  B.C. 

§  931.  Similar  questions  relating  to  J  are  not  so  easily 
disposed  of.  While  the  majority  of  inquirers  hold  that 
the  work  proceeded  from  the  southern  kingdom,  a  few 
critics  of  weight,  such  as  Reuss,  Kuenen,  Schrader,  pro- 
nounce in  favour  of  the  northern,  on  the  ground  that  no 
Judaite  would  have  given  prominence  to  the  northern 
shrines  of  Shechem,  Bethel,  and  Peniel  (Gen.  xii.  6;  xxviii. 
13  ff . ;  xxxii.  30  f.).  This  phenomenon  has  given  rise  to 
the  hypothesis2  that  the  foundation  of  the  work  (''J1"; 
cf.  §  921))  was  laid  in  the  northern  kingdom,  while  the 
later  form  of  the  book  is  a  Judaite  recension.  But  such 
a  supposition  appears  unnecessary  when  we  consider  that 
the  prophets  of  Judah  were  patriotic  Israelites  and  held 

1  It  is  conceivable  that  in  the  struggle  waged  by  the  prophetic  party  in 
northern  Israel  against  false  worship,  the  use  of  Elohim  as  a  singular 
(with  a  plural  verb  in  Gen.  xx.  13,  xxxi.  5:3)  was  encouraged  as  an 
effective  protest  against  the  plurality  of  deities. 

2  See  Kautzsch,  Abriss,  p.  154. 


Ch.  Ill,  §  032  DATE   OF  J  71 

fast  to  all  the  treasures  of  common  ancient  tradition.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  association  of  Abraham  and  Jacob 
with  Hebron,  and  the  prominence  given  to  Judah,  the 
head  of  the  tribe,  as  well  as  the  subordinate  place 
assigned  to  Joshua,  are  explicable  only  on  the  theory  of  a 
Judaite  origin. 

§  932.  To  fix  the  date  of  J,  that  is,  the  date  of  the  fin- 
ished work,  is  not  easy.  There  are  no  allusions  to  his- 
torical events  that  justify  a  certain  inference.1  General 
considerations  may,  however,  be  presented  :  First,  the 
manifold  geographical  and  ethnological  knowledge  shown 
by  J  points  to  a  stage  of  culture  not  earlier  than  the  days 
of  Uzziah.  Notice  particularly  the  accurate  transcription 
and  grouping  of  Babylonian  and  Assyrian  (Gen.  x.  11  f.) 
and  of  south  and  east  Arabian  names  (vs.  26  ft.).  Sec- 
ondly, there  are  strong  indications  of  Assyrian  (Babylo- 
nian) influence  in  J's  primitive  history.  While  it  is  in 
every  way  probable  that  the  earliest  traditions  of  Genesis 
came  to  J  by  direct  tradition  (§  880),  the  details  of  the 
setting  of  the  creation  story  (Gen.  ii.)  and  of  the  disper- 
sion (Gen.  xi.)  were  evidently  due  to  contemporary 
information.  In  other  words,  the  acquaintance  with 
Babylonia  shown  by  J  was  acquired  through  direct 
knowledge  of  the  country  itself  or  of  its  literature. 
Such  advantages  were  possessed  by  Judaites  only  after 
the  reign  of  Ahaz,  to  whose  initiative  it  was  due  that 
Assyrian  and  Babylonian  worship  and  manners  became 
fashionable  in  Jerusalem  (§040,  856).  Thirdly,  the 
advanced  stage  of  theological  reflection  shown  in  the 
profound  conception  of  human  nature  and  its  moral  ten- 
dencies and  possibilities  (Gen.  ii.-iv.),  and  of  the  inner 

1  It  lias  been  supposed  that  a  terminus  a  quo  is  given  in  Gen.  ix.  25  f. 
in  an  allusion  to  the  servitude  of  the  Canaanites,  which  is  thought  to  have 
been  realized  in  the  days  of  Solomon  (1  K.  ix.  21).  But  the  reference 
is  too  general  to  be  of  value.  At  any  rate,  it  cannot  be  seriously  held 
that  any  essential  part  of  the  work  was  written  as  early  as  the  time  of 
Solomon. 


72       HISTORY   AND   MORAL  POSITION   OF  J    AND   E       Book  IX 

conditions  of  righteousness  (Gen.  xv.  6),  place  J  not  only 
in  advance  of  E  but  also  on  a  level  with  the  literary 
prophets.  It  was  therefore  quite  probably  toward  the 
close  of  the  eighth  century  B.C.  that  J  was  composed. 
§  933.  We  cannot  conjecture  the  motive  that  prompted 
the  composition  of  the  earlier  stratum,  or  strata,  of  J. 
But  the  book,  as  it  has  come  to  us,  may  perhaps  be 
accounted  for  as  follows.  It  was  not  written  from  the 
Judaite  point  of  view  alone,  as  opposed  to  that  of  the 
northern  kingdom,  but  rather  from  the  standpoint  of  Judah 
as  representing  the  whole  of  the  true  Israel.  This  is 
shown  by  its  impartial  reference  to  places  and  persons  of 
common  ancient  tradition  (§  931).  Hence  it  can  scarcely 
have  been  written  while  the  northern  kingdom,  with  its 
religious  and  (from  734  B.C.)  political  rivalry,  was  still 
in  existence.  But  after  the  downfall  of  Samaria 
(722-1),  E  being  in  the  hands  of  the  prophetic  [tarty  in 
the  southern  kingdom  as  a  literary  and  spiritual  legacy, 
what  more  natural  than  to  set  forth,  in  a  work  of  similar 
scope  and  plan,  that  all  things  from  the  beginning  of  the 
world  were  under  Jehovah's  control ;  that  his  was  a  world- 
religion  ;  and  that  the  type  of  worship  and  belief  cherished 
in  Judah  and  Jerusalem  was  that  of  the  patriarchs  ?  Why 
the  theme  was  not  pursued  further,  why  neither  J  nor  E 
systematically  continued  his  narrative  beyond  the  settle- 
ment in  Canaan,  may  be  understood  in  the  light  of  the 
fact  that  histories  of  the  judges  and  the  early  kings  were 
already  in  circulation  (cf.  §  917  ff.). 

§  934.  Another  observation  may  be  allowed.  It  may 
seem  unfitting  that  J  should  be  placed  on  an  ethical  and 
spiritual  level  with  the  early  literary  prophets,  in  spite  of 
the  inequalities  and  the  chiaroscuro  colouring  of  his  work. 
But  we  may  remember  that  we  have  here  to  do  with 
Hebrew  "historical"  writing,  which,  while  it  is  true  to 
the  past  as  far  as  manners  and  customs  are  concerned,  also 
idealizes  the  past  and  invests  its  characters  with  the 
glamour  of  that  quality  which  we  may  call  the  traditional 


Ch.  Ill,  §  935     OTHER    WRITINGS  OF  THE   PERIOD  73 

heroic  (cf.  §  929).  We  must,  in  all  fairness,  judge  of 
such  an  author  by  his  best;  and  this  best  is  no  whit  below 
the  moral  and  spiritual  heights  attained  by  the  prophets 
of  the  eighth  century  B.C.  Yet  we  must  beware  of  classi- 
fying J,  or  the  compilers  of  the  "prophetic  histories" 
generally,  with  the  literary  prophets,  or  the  reforming, 
preaching  prophets,  who  preceded  them.  They  were 
pupils,  while  the  prophets  were  the  masters.  They  were 
not  public  men,  but  quiet  observers  and  students.  They 
were  not  originators  but  conservators  of  truth.  Hence 
only  the  best  that  they  preserved  to  us  can  be  compared 
with  the  genuine  prophetic  revelation.  Their  strength 
lay  partly  in  this  discipleship,  and  partly  in  a  literary 
brotherhood  or  guildhood,  to  which  the  spirit  and  habit 
of  the  inspired  prophets  were  altogether  alien. 

§  935.  But  these  great  works  do  not  make  up  the  total 
literary  history  from  900  B.C.  (cf.  §  919)  to  the  flourishing 
period  of  literary  prophec}^.  J  and  E  were  themselves 
united  into  one  work  (J  E)  soon  after  the  completion  of 
J.  The  "Blessing  of  Moses"  (Deut.  xxxiii.),  preserved 
in  E  (§  920),  was  perhaps  written  in  the  period  of  the 
revival  of  Israel  under  Joash  and  Jeroboam  II  (§  262). 
As  contrasted  with  the  "Blessing  of  Jacob"  (§  905),  of 
which  it  is  an  imitation,  we  observe  that  now  the  tribe 
of  Simeon  does  not  appear,  that  Reuben  is  near  its  end, 
and  that  Levi  has  gone  over  wholly  to  sacerdotalism. 
The  centre  of  the  poem  is  the  exaltation  of  Joseph  and 
Ephraim  (v.  13-17),  and  this  is  significant  for  the  date 
of  its  composition.  From  northern  Israel  came,  also,  the 
stories  of  Elijah  and  Elisha  (1  K.  xvii.-xix.,  xxi.  and 
2  K.  ii.-ix.),  with  the  historical  notices  included.  The 
career  of  Elijah  probably  formed  at  first  a  special  work, 
as  did  also  that  of  Elisha,  while  the  historical  records 
were  of  course  added  by  the  compiler  from  special  sources. 
Finally,  that  account  of  the  history  of  Samuel  and  Saul 
which  emphasizes  the  evils  and  perils  of  the  institution 
of  the    kingdom  (cf.    §   919),  along  with    the  associated 


7i  AMOS   AND    HIS   SCHOOL  Book  IX 

narratives  (1  S.  i.-iii. ,  viii. ;  x.  17-24:  xv. ;  xvii.-xix. ; 
xxi.  ;  xxii. ;  xxvi.),1  is,  perhaps,  to  be  assigned  to  an 
Ephraimitic  writer  living  in  the  declining  period  of 
northern  Israel. 

§  936.  Of  the  writings  of  the  prophets  up  to  the  time 
of  Josiah  a  summary  has  already  been  given  in  connection 
with  the  domestic  and  international  events  that  affected 
their  ministry.  Thus,  we  have  passed  in  review  Amos 
and  Hosea  in  northern,  and  Isaiah  and  Micah  in  southern 
Israel.  Two  things  are  yet  lacking  for  the  proper  histori- 
cal treatment  of  their  prophecies.  We  should  show 
how  the  most  essential  elements  in  their  teaching  were 
related  to  the  antecedent  thought  and  life  of  Israel;  and 
we  should,  also,  try  to  account  for  their  writings  as  liter- 
ary productions.  The  former  question  is  one  that  may  be 
more  suitably  discussed  in  connection  with  the  develop- 
ment of  religion  and  morals  (§  946  ff.).  On  the  latter 
topic  a  few  words  should  be  said  here. 

§  937.  Amos  of  Tekoa  made  an  epoch  (§  867),  one  of 
the  greatest  in  the  history  of  our  world.  But  he  did  not 
create  the  epoch.  There  were  prophets  of  his  own  class 
before  him.  Those  to  whom  he  refers  as  his  colleagues 
(iii.  7;  cf.  ii.  11  f.)  were  not  professionals  who  followed 
the  business  merely  to  earn  their  bread  (cf.  vii.  12). 
Whether,  like  him,  they  were  born  outside  of  the  prophetic 
guilds  or  not,  they  as  well  as  he  had  something  to 
"prophesy,"  that  is,  to  speak  out  spontaneously,  as  the 
word  literally  means.  They  were  of  the  school  of  Elijah, 
who,  passing  beyond  the  function  of  seer2  and  of  court 
counsellor  (Nathan,   Gad),   became  a  preacher.       It  was 

1  I  give  this  list  of  passages  tentatively  from  Kautzsch,  Abriss,  p.  157  f. 
Cf.  Budde,  Dif  Bilcher  Richter  und  Samuel  (1890),  and  The  Text  of  Samuel, 
in  SBOT. ;  Driver,  Intr.  ;  and  Cornill,  Einleitung,  on  the  chapters  in 
question.  The  subject  is  difficult,  but  a  comparatively  late  date  must 
be  assumed  for  at  least  most  of  the  material  indicated  here. 

2  See  1  Sam.  ix.  !>.  where  the  consciousness  of  the  distinction  between 
the  seer  and  the  later  prophet  is  significant  for  the  date  of  that  section  of 
the  book  (cf.  §  919). 


Ch.  Ill,  §  009  THE   ORATORICAL    PERIOD  75 

these  unordained  and  itinerant  preachers  that  turned  the 
ancient  world  upside  down.  Their  theme  was  righteous- 
ness and  justice,  urgently  demanded  for  the  pleasing  of 
Jehovah  and  for  the  saving  of  the  state.  Their  commis- 
sion was  simply  to  have  heard  the  word  of  Jehovah  (Am. 
iii.  8). 

§  938.  As  they  heard,  so  they  spoke  (Num.  xxii.  8, 
18,  38;  xxiii.  3,  12,  20;  Am.  vii.  15  ff. ;  Isa.  vi.  Off.; 
Jer.  i.  7 ;  et  al.~).  Yet  Amos  and  Isaiah  and  Jeremiah 
had  each  a  well-defined  language  and  style  of  their  own, 
and  these  were  the  result  of  education  and  training.  But 
what  is  more  important  for  our  present  purpose,  there  was 
a  characteristic  prophetic  manner  from  the  beginning. 
Both  in  matter  and  form  the  discourses  of  Amos  reveal 
to  us  a  mature  and  finished  work.  There  is  structural 
completeness  in  the  parallelism  of  the  more  strictly  poetic 
portions,  and  the  author  has  everywhere  a  command  of 
those  rhetorical  figures  that  give  grace  and  form  to  a 
masterly  oration.  But  there  is,  besides,  a  distinct  manner 
of  address  and  argument  which  is  characteristic  of  all 
written  prophec}'.  It  is  the  style  of  classical  Hebrew 
oratory,  and  we  may  call  this  stage  of  Hebrew  literary 
development  the  oratorical  period. 

§  939.  We  have,  however,  no  verbatim  reports  of  the 
extant  prophetic  speeches.  They  have  come  to  us  in  a 
form  more  or  less  condensed,  and  in  some  cases  the 
addresses  were  never  delivered  at  all.  We  have  to  feel 
our  way  through  them  for  impressions  of  the  living  voice, 
of  the  place  and  the  time  and  the  hearers.  Much  more 
difficult  is  it  to  catch  the  voices  of  which  the  words  of  the 
earliest  prophecies  are  the  echo.  By  what  intellectual 
discipline,  by  what  favouring  occasions,  through  what 
stimulating  influences, — apart  from  moral  and  religious 
motives,  —  was  the  prophetic  type  of  literature  developed  ? 
Of  one  thing  we  may  be  certain.  The  book  of  Amos  was 
not  the  first  written  composition  of  its  kind.  Practice  in 
speaking  alone  cannot  account  for  the  concentrated  force 


70  EFFECT   OF   PUBLIC    SPEAKING  Book  IX 

of  expression,1  the  lucidity  of  order  and  reasoning  distinc- 
tive of  a  work  which,  in  nine  short  chapters,  gives  the 
substance  of  a  score  of  sermons,  which  is  itself  a  hand- 
book of  social  ethics,  which  gives  a  survey  of  the  nations, 
and  minutely  describes  the  moral  and  religious  condition 
of  a  kingdom.  Much  practice  in  writing  upon  kindred 
themes  must  be  assumed  as  an  antecedent.  This  habit  of 
writing,  however,  was  secondary,  and  was  not  always, 
perhaps  not  often,  the  business  of  the  prophets  themselves. 
Moreover,  the  written  memorials  were  sometimes  com- 
posed much  later  than  the  spoken  discourses. 

§  940.  We  shall  not,  then,  go  far  astray  if  we  regard 
the  practice  of  public  speaking  as  the  chief  external 
stimulus  to  prophetic  composition.  Properly  considered, 
Old  Testament  prophecy,  as  distinguished  from  the  pri- 
vate or  official  revelation  of  the  seer,  is  essentially  ora- 
tory,2 the  addressing  of  an  assemblage  or  a  community. 
The  occasions  were  doubtless  furnished  mainly  b}r  the 
popular  gatherings  at  feasts  and  for  worship  at  the  favour- 
ite shrines.  Amos  himself  spoke  at  Bethel  (Am.  vii.  10, 
13),  and  the  language  of  the  indignant  chief  priest  of  the 
sanctuary  implies  that  the  prophet  was  out  of  order  only 
because  he  had  inveighed  against  the  royal  proprietor  of 
the  sanctuary.  The  roll  of  Jeremiah  was  read  (Jer. 
xxx vi.  9  f.)  on  a  great  fast  day  before  the  temple  in 
Jerusalem.  But  before  the  Deuteronomic  revolution 
(§  860-802),  both  in  northern  Israel  (Am.  v.  21;  Hos. 
ii.  13;  EV.  11)  and  in  the  kingdom  of  Judah  ( Isa.  i. 
13  f.),  festal  gatherings  were  frequent  at  the  principal 
shrines.  The  keen  interest  which  the  prophets  took  in 
them  shows  that  they  made  them  a  chief  occasion  of  their 

1  Condensation  was  favoured  by  the  scarcity  and  costliness  of  writing 
materials,  just  as  conversely  the  average  book  of  the  present  day  mainly 
consists  of  cheap  stationery.  Fancy  Amos  turning  over  the  pages  of  his 
commentators  ! 

2  It  is  probable  that  tpj,  a  synonym  for  "prophesy,"  meaning  to 
"drip,1'  and  causative,  to  "drop-'  (e.g.  Am.  vii.  1G),  is  in  some  way 
connected  with  the  oral  delivery  of  prophetic  messages. 


On.  Ill,  §  942        VITAL   MOTIVE   OF   PROPHECY  77 

utterances.  Thus  the  part  played  by  popular  assemblies 
in  stimulating  the  earliest  literature  of  Israel  (§  871,  898) 
was  now  reenacted  on  a  higher  plane  in  the  making  of 
"some  better  thing,"  apart  from  which  the  older  revela- 
tion could  "not  be  made  perfect." 

§  941.  In  this  communication  with  the  people  through 
the  living  voice  of  the  prophets  there  was  a  vitalizing 
principle ;  the  same,  indeed,  as  that  which,  as  a  saving 
element,  informed  the  whole  of  the  Old  Testament  lit- 
erature. What  gave  a  more  than  Promethean  tire  and 
potency  to  prophecy  was  this,  that  it  seized  upon  and  was 
possessed  by  living  issues  of  eternal  moment.  The 
prophets  were  the  messengers  and  organs  of  the  ever 
living  God,  and  hence  they  found  their  work  and  its  joy 
in  the  present,  — in  its  duties,  its  hopes,  its  possibilities. 
The  previous  literature  had  now  done  its  part.  The 
stories  of  the  fathers,  the  struggles  and  triumphs,  the 
failures  and  sins,  of  the  generations  that  were  gone,  had 
linked  Israel  with  a  God  of  revelation  and  providence,  of 
holiness  and  faithfulness.  But  a  new  order  of  things  had 
begun.  Egyptians  and  Canaanites  and  Philistines  were 
no  longer  dreaded.  They  were  like  the  Rephaim,  huge 
but  impalpable  shades.  Even  the  Syrians  no  longer 
inspired  Israel  with  terror.  But  a  greater  foe  was  to 
come,  as  yet  hardly  seen  except  from  afar.  And  who 
would  abide  the  day  of  his  coming?  It  was  not  clear  that 
Jehovah  himself  would  then  save  and  defend  his  people. 
Nay,  Ik;  would  turn  to  be  their  enemy  and  would  fight 
against  them.  For  they  had  forsaken  Jehovah,  and 
despised  the  Holy  One  of  Israel  (Isa.  i.  4).  The  very 
"day  of  Jehovah,"  for  which  they  looked,  would  be 
"darkness  and  not  light"  (Am.  v.  18,  20).  Only  a  new 
and  living  word  could  o-uide  and  comfort  in  the  gathering 
gloom.  And  this  was  the  word  of  the  prophets,  a  word 
of  light  and  life. 

§  942.  A  clear  century  of  literary  history,  from  J  E  to 
Deuteronomy,  was  occupied  by  prophecy  and  the  prophetic 


78  PROGRESS   TOWARD    DEUTERONOMY  Book  IX 

lyrics  alone  (§  605  f.).  The  fact  is  eloquent  of  the 
originality,  force,  and  timeliness  of  the  prophetic  word. 
The  literature  up  to  the  middle  of  the  eighth  century  B.C. 
had  dealt  with  the  old  order  of  things  that  ended  with  the 
establishment  of  a  lasting  peace  and  a  vigorous  govern- 
ment under  Jeroboam  II  and  Uzziah.  The  motives  and 
the  progress  of  the  long  antecedent  history,  with  the  lives 
of  the  founders  of  Israel  and  the  checkered  career  of  Israel 
itself,  had  been  set  forth  at  large.  The  fundamental  insti- 
tutions, legal  and  moral,  that  were  the  guardians  of  its 
past  and  seemed  to  guarantee  its  future,  were  written  up. 
But  this  could  not  of  itself  avail  to  guide  and  steady  the 
people  of  Jehovah  in  the  confusion  and  disorder,  inter- 
national and  domestic,  of  the  new  Assyrian  times.  Men 
who  are  in  an  underground  labyrinth  may  see  around 
them  by  the  light  of  a  candle,  but  only  the  inbreaking 
light  of  the  sun  can  guide  them  to  the  upper  day.  Such, 
in  its  way,  was  the  "sure  word  of  prophecy"  to  all  who 
would  heed  and  follow. 

§  943.  And  what  of  the  next  great  event,  the  publica- 
tion of  Deuterononry  ?  It  was  in  the  true  line  of  evolu- 
tion of  the  ancient  literature,  as  it  had  been  deflected  by 
the  prophetic  movement.  Deuteronomy  was  essentially  a 
completion  of  the  old  histories  in  the  spirit  and  under  the 
impulse  of  prophecy.  J  and  E  showed,  in  the  motive  of 
their  composition,  that  they  were  looking  toward  the  goal 
aimed  at  by  the  prophets  who  took  their  place  in  the  order 
of  revelation.  But  what  to  them  was  an  aspiration  and 
an  ideal  became  to  the  prophets  the  very  breath  and  bread 
of  life.  Where  they  ended  their  work,  the  prophets  began 
theirs.  The  historians  gave  the  facts  of  history  and  of 
providence.  The  prophets  brought  these  into  vital  rela- 
tion with  present  issues.  They  showed  that  the  past, 
present,  and  future  of  Israel  were  determined  by  the  God 
of  the  whole  earth,  who  adjudged  the  fate  of  his  people 
according  to  the  laws  of  his  own  moral  nature.  Then 
came  the  Deuteronomist,  who  revived  and  reinforced  the 


Ch.  Ill,  §944      HISTORY,    PROPHECY,    DEUTERONOMY  79 

old  rules  of  life  and  conduct  by  the  application  to  them 
of  these  prophetic  principles,  thus  bringing  both  the  rules 
and  the  principles  into  active  operation.  J  E  was  a  book 
of  institutions  and  ordinances  and  of  the  leadings  of 
Providence  (§  924  ff.).  How  closely  Deuteronomy  is 
connected  with  it  appears  from  a  comparison,  which 
shows  that  "  the  laws  in  J  E  form  the  foundation  of  the 
Deuteronomic  legislation."  1 

§  94-1.  Thus,  Deuteronomy  took  a  practical  step  be- 
yond J  E  and  the  earlier  prophets,  though  still  in  the 
same  line  of  development;  for  it  showed  that  the  spirit 
of  obedience  to  Jehovah  and  the  moral  purpose  of  the 
former  revelation  alike  required  that  there  should  be,  on 
the  part  of  the  people,  a  more  complete  surrender  of  the 
heart  and  life  to  his  service.  To  secure  a  fuller  conse- 
cration and  a  purer  worship  new  enactments  were  made, 
broader  and  stronger,  dividing  sharply  between  the  holy 
and  the  unholy,  the  sacred  and  the  secular,  the  lawful 
and  the  proscribed.  Hence  Deuteronomy  was  not  merely 
a  repetition  of  the  ancient  law:  it  completed  it;  it  justi- 
fied it;  it  spiritualized  it.  The  old  historians  and  seers 
built  an  ark  of  safety  for  Israel.  The  prophets  guided  it 
through  the  swelling  waters  and  drifting  wrecks  of  the 
national  deluge.  The  Deuteronomist  took  possession  of 
the  devastated  land,  settled  it  anew,  and  rededicated  it  to 
Jehovah.  And  with  the  reenactment  of  the  Covenant 
(Gen.  ix.  13 ;  Deut.  v.  3)  a  bow  of  promise  was  seen  for 
a  moment  in  Israel's  troubled  sky,  the  storm-cloud  of 
judgment  blending  with  the  sunshine  of  mercy,  and 
showing  how  earth  might  be  reconciled  to  heaven. 


1  I  quote  from  Driver,  to  whose  useful  comparative  table  of  the  laws 
of  the  Pentateuch  (Intr.G  p.  73  ff.),  I  would  refer  the  reader  for  further 
details.  A  general  division  of  Deuteronomy  having  been  given  in  §  847 
and  note,  no  further  analysis  need  be  attempted  here,  especially  as  the 
book  is  of  simple  structure,  and  the  recent  literature  is  in  every  respect 
adequate.  Among  special  works,  the  commentaries  of  Driver  (1895)  and 
Audrew  Harper  (lb95)  are  to  be  particularly  recommended. 


80  NEED   OF   FURTHER    INQUIRY  Book  IX 

§  945.  Here  we  must  close  our  historical  survey  of 
the  literature  that  culminated  in  Deuteronomy.  What 
specially  distinguishes  that  profound  and  far-reaching- 
work  is  the  spirit  and  the  sanctions  of  its  teaching  and 
its  commands.  To  appreciate  this  more  subtle  quality  of 
the  book  we  need  to  follow  closely  the  development  of 
moral  and  religious  principles  and  ideas,  as  shown  in  the 
life  and  thought  of  the  leading  men  in  Israel's  history. 


CHAPTER   IV 

RELIGION    AND    MORALS 

§  946.  Our  review  of  the  inner  history  of  Israel 
(Book  VII)  has  taught  us  that  it  was  religion  that 
made  the  deepest  lines  of  cleavage  between  parties  in 
society  and  in  the  state.  As  far  as  public  policy  was 
concerned,  the  "  Opposition "  was  normally  composed  of 
religious  puritans.  Civil  broils  had  as  their  chief  excit- 
ing cause  religious  discontent,  and  the  determining  if  not 
always  the  primary  political  issue  in  both  kingdoms  was 
the  question  whether  Jehovah  was  to  be  honoured  by  a 
pure  and  exclusive  worship,  or  whether  his  rites  should 
be  adulterated  with  those  of  inferior  and  discredited 
deities.  Still  more  profound  was  the  social  schism  that 
resulted  indirectly  from  the  predominance  of  the  party  of 
religious  compromise.  It  was  the  partisans  of  Jehovah 
who  took  the  side  of  the  suffering  and  the  oppressed, 
and  with  their  wrongs  and  their  vindication  the  cause  of 
Jehovah  was  identified  (§  597,  602).  Naturally,  it  is  the 
political  antagonism  that  is  noted  in  the  historical  records, 
and  the  social  strife  that  finds  expression  in  the  reflective 
literature  (§  598  ff.).  It  was  these  political  and  social 
crises  that  led  to  the  composition  of  the  classical  writ- 
ings on  the  subject  ;  and  the  movements  or  events  con- 
nected with  such  crises  furnish  us  with  our  data  for  an 
estimate  of  religious  forces  and  religious  progress. 

§  947.  We  thus  see  that  the  great  moral  issues  in 
Israel  were  practically  religions  issues  as  well.  We  can- 
not, however,  determine  directly  the  course  of  moral 
G  81 


82  PRIMITIVE    MORALITY  Book  IX 

progress  in  Israel  from  the  history  of  its  worship  and 
beliefs.  We  must  rather  test  the  genuineness,  depth,  and 
power  of  religion  by  the  moral  conduct  of  its  professors. 
Our  earlier  studies  upon  the  "society  morals  and  reli- 
gion "  of  Israel  up  to  the  fall  of  Samaria  and  the  acces- 
sion of  Hezekiah  (§  539  ff.)  dealt  mainly  with  the 
question  of  social  morality,  since  the  inner  development 
of  the  people  could  best  be  traced  in  the  progress  of 
the  community  as  a  whole.  Now  that  we  are  confronted 
with  the  problem  of  the  results  of  prophetic  teaching 
as  tested  by  the  great  reformation,  we  must  examine  the 
prevailing  types  of  individual  morality  in  the  preceding 
times.  Our  inquiry  will  show  that  before  the  prophetic 
era  the  morality  of  the  best  men  in  Israel  was  as  a  rule 
both  rudimentary  and  partial.  A  personal  conscience 
seemed  scarcely  yet  awakened.  The  higher  modes  of 
life  and  conduct  seemed  unknown.  Such  virtues  as  were 
practised  were  of  that  coarse  and  robust  kind  which 
belongs  and  is  indeed  necessary  to  primitive  society. 

^  948.1  We  have  to  begin  with  the  so-called  patriarchal 
epoch.  Before  Abraham  there  is  no  Bible  history  in  any 
true  sense  of  the  term ;  and  where  there  is  no  history 
there  is  no  morality  that  can  be  tested  and  described. 
Morality  is  always  much  of  a  social  matter,  especially 
among  primitive  peoples.  What  the  community  is  in  the 
habit  of  doing  is  in  general  the  norm  and  guide  of  indi- 
vidual conduct.  The  practical  limits  are  set  on  the  one 
side  by  what  the  community  tolerates,  and  on  the  other 
by  what  it  desires.  Further,  we  know  the  facts  of  ancient 
tribal  life  only  from  the  record  of  the  deeds  of  the  leaders, 
in  which  the  figures  of  Abraham,  Isaac,  Jacob,  and  the 
Twelve  stand  out  in  solitary  relief. 

§  040.  In  reading  the  story  of  the  ancient  patriarchs, 
we   must   be  at   once  struck  with  the  apparent  freedom 

1  The  substance  of  §  948-993  is  taken,  by  permission,  from  my  article, 
•'The  Moral  Evolution  of  the  Old  Testament,"  in  the  American  Journal 
of  Theology,  I,  G58  ff. 


Ch.  IV,  §  050      CHANGE   OF   MORAL   STANDARDS  83 

and  breadth  of  movement  and  action  which  it  reveals, 
the  absence  of  moral  restraints,  the  self-impnlsiveness, 
so  to  speak,  of  moral  choice.  This  phenomenon  has,  to 
a  large  extent,  its  explanation  in  the  conditions  of  the 
nomadic  life.  We  have  to  make,  in  any  case,  a  distinc- 
tion between  classes  of  moral  acts.  There  are  some  deeds 
which  are  wrong  in  the  very  nature  of  things,  while 
there  are  others  which  are  wrong  because  they  are  injuri- 
ous to  our  fellows  or  to  society.  The  latter  class  may 
at  one  time  be  permissible  and  at  another  reprehensible. 
A  monumental  instance  is  the  discrimination  made  by 
Jesus  between  the  ideal  marriage  bond  and  the  loosening 
of  the  relation  tolerated  in  an  earlier  stage  of  the  history 
of  Israel.  Polygamy  also  is  now  regarded  as  immoral  in 
civilized  states.  But  it  was  sanctioned  by  high  example 
in  ancient  Israel.  The  same  is  true  of  slaveholding. 
Indeed,  slaveholding  was  not,  and  could  not  be  at  any 
time,  interdicted  in  ancient  society.  Yet  the  abuse  of 
the  relations  thus  tolerated  or  approved  was  always 
reckoned  an  offence.  Harsh  treatment,  either  of  a  wife 
or  a  slave,  was  always  wrong.  Thus  social  institutions, 
themselves  subject  to  change  and  readjustment,  may 
within  their  proper  spheres  raise  or  lower  the  conditions 
and  standards  of  moral  obligation. 

§  950.  The  fundamental  consideration  in  such  variable 
cases  is  the  interest  of  society.  Not  that  this  was  a  mat- 
ter of  agreement  or  of  contrivance  in  any  way.  It  was 
simply  the  unconscious  adjustment  of  the  community  to 
its  necessities.  Society  has  progressed  mainly  by  the 
suppression  or  gradual  abandonment  of  habits  and  cus- 
toms which  have  been  found  to  be  injurious.  It  is  an 
important  and  difficult  question,  how  far  we  are  to  distin- 
guish between  the  evils  which  are  in  themselves  wrong 
and  those  whose  culpability  varies  with  the  requirements 
of  society  and  its  consequent  varying  moral  standards. 
If  we  go  far  enough  back  in  social  history,  we  shall  come 
to  a  stage  where  almost  any  sort  of  action  is  justifiable 


84  DEFECTS   OF   TRIBAL   MORALITY  Book  IX 

under  given  circumstances.  The  decisive  sanction  was 
the  will  of  the  community  ;  in  other  words,  the  usages 
and  customs  which  formed  the  basis  and  bond  of  union. 
In  ordinary  eases  individual  choice  was  overborne  by  the 
interests  of  tin'  clan  or  the  family.  A  striking  instance 
is  afforded  by  the  difference  of  treatment  accorded  to 
kinsfolk  and  clansmen,  on  the  one  hand,  and  to  aliens,  on 
the  other.  Kindnesses,  or  even  the  ordinary  offices  of 
humanity,  would  by  usage,  that  is  upon  principle,  be 
withheld  from  the  latter.  What  would  lie  counted  a 
crime  done  to  a  tribesman  was  sometimes  a  meritorious 
and  even  an  obligatory  act  when  done  to  an  outsider. 
For  the  avenger  of  blood  there  was  no  punishment,  but 
rather  approbation,  since  the  duty  to  take  up  the  cause  of 
a  kinsman,  even  if  he  were  in  the  wrong,  was  paramount 
(§  398).  Thus  no  claim  of  compassion  could  avail  even  in 
behalf  of  one  who  had  unwittingly  provoked  such  corpo- 
rate resentment.  It  is  difficult  to  see  how  social  morality, 
which  rests  essentially  on  the  equal  claims  of  all  men  for 
justice  if  not  for  mercy,  could  flourish  in  these  primitive 
communities.  The  matter  was  aggravated  by  the  fact 
that  the  sole  judge  of  the  avenger  was  the  family  or 
tribal  head.  It  would  be  strange,  indeed,  if  the  common 
virtues  were  maintained  in  the  stress  and  strain  of  daily 
life  when  the  vendetta  was  kept  up  by  the  community 
from  a  sense  of  right.  When  individual  action  was  sub- 
ordinated to  the  claims  of  the  community  there  was  lit- 
tle room  for  that  spontaneous  choice  between  opposing 
courses  which  is  at  once  the  test  of  moral  quality  and  the 
basis  of  moral  discipline.  Qualities  of  mind  and  heart 
essential  to  the  moral  life  of  the  individual  were,  in  the 
very  nature  of  the  case,  not  yet  evoked,  since  in  that 
stage  of  society  the  solidarity  of  the  social  unit  was  a 
much  more  obvious  thing  than  the  individuality  of  its 
several  members.  Indeed,  the  notion  that  the  members 
of  the  family  or  kin  formed  by  themselves  an  undivided 
life  lies  at  the  very  foundation  of  tribalism. 


Ch.  IV,  §  952  RELIGIOUS   INFLUENCES  85 

§  951.  Another  great  moral  determinant  was  the  claim 
of  the  deities  upon  the  obedience  of  their  followers.  We 
may  say  in  general  that  in  the  primitive  tribal  condition 
the  obligations  of  a  man  to  his  deity  are  analogous  in 
some  respects  to  those  which  bind  him  to  the  usages  or 
behests  of  his  community.  In  a  very  profound  sense  the 
same  ties  united  the  members  to  one  another  and  to  their 
common  divinity.  Even  if  we  do  not  accept  the  view 
that  most  tribal  religion  was  based  upon  ancestor-worship, 
we  must  concede  that  the  tribesmen  regarded  themselves 
as  being  akin  to  their  gods,  as  in  fact  sharing  with  them 
a  common  life  (§  307).  This  was  certainly  one  of  the 
sources  of  the  power  wielded  over  them  by  the  objects 
of  their  reverence  and  homage.  There  were  two  prin- 
cipal ways  in  which  such  power  was  exercised.  One  was 
connected  with  sacred  places,  the  proper  seats  of  the  gods, 
where  the  rites  of  their  worship  were  performed,  and 
whose  sacredness  conferred  a  special  sanctity  or  immunity 
upon  special  things  or  actions.  Another  was  associated 
with  the  declared  will  of  the  gods,  which  was  made  known 
through  various  channels,  but  mainly  by  the  domestic  or 
communal  priests,  who  ministered  within  the  family  or 
family  group,  or  in  the  common  sanctuary  of  the  tribe. 

sj  952.  We  revert  now  to  the  moral  standards  and 
ideals  of  the  so-called  patriarchal  society  among  the 
Hebrews.  The  subject  has  already  been  glanced  at  in 
connection  with  the  moral  inferiority  of  some  portions  of 
J  E.  This  was  explained  on  the  ground  that  the  biogra- 
phers bad  faithfully  recorded  {he  traditions  of  the  fathers 
which  did  not  stand  on  the  ethical  level  of  the  prophetic 
times  (8  929,  el'.  934).  We  have  thus  obtained  an  inci- 
dental guarantee  of  the  accuracy  of  the  pictures  of  ancient 
life  found  in  the  book  of  Genesis.  Such  accuracy  is. 
moreover,  generally  conceded,  since  the  narrative  answers 
to  any  fair  test  thai  may  he  applied  by  archaeological  and 
sociological  criticism.  The  question  before  us  is  the  rela- 
tion in  point  of  morality  between  the  Israel  of  tradition 


86  PATRIARCHAL    RECTITUDE  Book  IX 

and  the  Israel  of  later  history  ;  and  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that  with  the  stories  of  patriarchal  life  we  stand 
at  the  fountain  head  of  an  unbroken  stream  of  national 
tradition. 

§  9")o.  Moral  actions  may  for  convenience  be  divided 
into  those  which  spring  from  ordinary  human  relations 
and  those  which  have  a  special  religious  motive  or  war- 
rant. Of  the  former  class  the  most  prominent  offences 
are  deceit  and  fraud.  Oriental  deception  has  been  ncto- 
rious  chiefly  because  the  civilization  of  "Western  Asia  has 
been  specially  unfavourable  to  the  promotion  of  veracity 
and  justice.  These  virtues  are  seldom  highly  developed 
in  communities  of  low  political  organization.  That  men 
are  naturally  liars  is  a  fact  of  anthropological  science  as 
well  as  of  biblical  and  historical  observation.  It  is  only 
by  slow  gradations  of  self-discipline  that  truthfulness  has 
been  established  anywhere  as  an  attribute  of  individuals 
or  communities. 

§  954.  It  would  therefore  naturally  be  expected  that 
the  virtues  of  sincerity  and  rectitude  would  be  rudimen- 
tary or  wanting  in  nomadic  or  semi-nomadic  peoples. 
The  foundation  of  such  qualities  is  the  sense  of  responsi- 
bilit}r  for  one's  acts  to  God  or  to  man,  or  to  both.  But 
when  religion  consists  mainly  of  ceremony  or  ritual,  there 
is  little  chance  for  the  evoking  of  the  former.  And  when 
property  is. attached  so  precariously  to  the  individual,  no 
large  issues  or  powerful  motives  are  present  that  might 
arouse  and  foster  the  latter.  "When  the  individual  subor- 
dinates his  personality  to  the  interests  of  his  tribe,  the 
demands  of  conscience  are  weakened,  or  rather,  the  sense 
of  moral  obligation  cannot  be  developed.  At  the  same 
time  other  virtues  may  be  conspicuous  which  are  in  a  line 
with  the  surrender  of  oneself  to  the  cause  of  the  commu- 
nity. Thus  it  happens  that  the  early  age  of  great  races  is 
an  age  of  heroism,  and  that  we  find  among  them  well- 
grounded  traditions  of  noble  deeds  of  courage  and  devo- 
tion that  serve  as  an  inspiration  to  all  later  generations. 


Ch.  IV,  §  955  THE    CAREER   OF   JACOB  87 

In  some   such  way  must  we    represent    to   ourselves  the 
earliest  or  patriarchal  age  of  ancient  Israel. 

§  955.  Of  the  propensity  to  deceive  and  cheat,  the 
recorded  habits  of  the  three  great  patriarchs  may  be  taken 
as  fairly  representative.  Very  ancient  must  be  the  social 
laxity  exhibited  in  Abraham's  betrayal  of  his  wife  (Gen. 
xii.  10  ff.  in  J ;  Gen.  xx.  1  ft",  in  E)  and  Isaac's  duplication 
of  the  crime  (Gen.  xxvi.  in  J).  A  more  normal  type  of 
deception  is  exhibited  in  the  career  of  Jacob,  which  illus- 
trates, on  the  one  hand,  the  advantage  of  family  leadership 
and  the  ancestral  blessing,  and,  on  the  other,  sets  forth 
the  means  that  might  be  resorted  to  in  order  to  secure 
these  priceless  gains.  I  do  not  dwell  at  length  on  the 
lessons  of  the  story,  which  was  made  entirely  true  to  life 
and  which,  at  the  same  time,  seems  in  every  instance  to 
show  that  dishonesty  is  the  best  policy.  A  larger  idea 
may  have  inspired  this  cherished  national  tradition,  which 
we  may  express  as  follows  after  the  manner  of  the  modern 
Jacob:  The  outcome  of  the  self-aggrandizement  of  Jacob, 
from  the  time  when,  under  the  guidance  of  his  crafty 
mother,  he  cajoled  Esau  out  of  the  blessing  till  his  per- 
manent settlement  in  Canaan,  was  a  better  thing  for  Israel 
and  humanit}r  than  would  have  been  his  discomfiture  by 
his  rivals ;  just  as,  at  the  present  time,  the  success  of  the 
policy  of  Cecil  Rhodes  and  the  vindication  of  his  "per- 
sonal honour"  are  better  for  England  and  mankind  than 
the  continued  possession  by  a  kindred  but  unprogressive 
community  of  an  auriferous  territory  and  of  its  birthright 
of  freedom.  Even  from  the  industrial  and  cultural  points 
of  view,  not  to  speak  of  the  spiritual  interests  ultimately 
involved,  it  was  better  that  the  higher  and  more  progres- 
sive type  of  man  should  have  the  promise  and  the  posses- 
sion of  Canaan,  than  that  the  lower  and  undeveloped  type, 
the  huntsman  of  the  wilderness,  should  be  the  heir  of  the 
"father  of  the  faithful."  This  conception  of  history  is, 
we  may  say,  hardly  on  a  level  with  the  true  prophetic 
(e-g.  Jer.  xvi.  13)  or  Christian  spirit.      But  by  the  time 


88  RELATK  >NS   OF   THE   SEXES  Book  IX 

when  the  tradition  was  embodied  in  the  record  (§  923  ff.), 
it  had  become  the  valid  interpretation  of  the  original 
story.  The  narrative  of  the  fact  has  already  been  dealt 
with  (§  929). 

vj  956.  We  may  now  briefly  examine  the  moral  conduct 
and  standards  of  the  ancestors  of  Israel  in  the  equally 
fundamental  matter  of  the  relations  of  the  sexes.  At  the 
outset  we  may  say  that  in  such  a  society  as  theirs  there  is 
no  question  of  extreme  grossness  or  utter  self-abandon- 
ment to  revolting  vice.  Their  life  was  on  the  whole 
simple  and  moderate.  It  was,  speaking  generally,  life 
in  cities  which  promoted  institutional  vice,  if  the  term 
may  be  permitted.  And  to  this  stage  the  early  Hebrews 
had  not  yet  become  accustomed.  Vices  associated  with 
the  worship  of  those  deities  which  were  regarded  as  the 
type  of  the  procreative  or  sexual  instinct  naturally  flour- 
ished where  great  temples  were  erected  and  maintained  to 
their  honour.  Thus  it  came  to  pass  that  that  passion  of 
human  nature,  whose  unbridled  indulgence  has  tended 
more  than  anything  else  to  demoralize  society  and  to  bring- 
about  the  destruction  of  families  and  nations,  received,  so 
to  speak,  an  apotheosis  in  the  transition  from  nomadic  to 
city  life  (see  §  1184  ff.,  1332  f.). 

§  957.  We  have,  accordingly,  to  deny  to  the  most 
ancient  of  the  Hebrews  any  form  of  rank  sensuality.  On 
the  other  hand,  polygamy,  intermarriage  of  near  rela- 
tives, and  the  still  more  debasing  practice  of  concubinage 
were  freely  tolerated.  Yet  we  must  take  into  account  the 
effect  on  the  whole  social  fabric  of  the  institution  of 
slavery,  the  most  important  factor  in  ancient  life  and 
manners  (§  539  ff.).  A  notable  secondary  result  of  the 
system  was  the  custom  which  accounts  for  the  pathetic 
story  of  Gen.  xvi.  In  general,  the  inferiorit}7  of  the  wife 
as  part  of  the  property  of  the  house-master  (§  412)  had 
tin-  consequence  that  the  freedom  which  was  granted  to 
him  was  denied  to  her,  that  the  dismissal  of  a  wife  was 
customary  and  easy,  while  that  of  a  husband  wras  unknown. 


Ch.  IV,  §  958  LICENTIOUS   PRACTICES  89 

The  conception  of  "adultery"  in  such  a  society  was, 
accordingly,  quite  different  from  ours:  the  infidelity  of 
a  husband  involved  no  separation  from  his  wife,  while 
that  of  the  wife  or  betrothed  maiden  might  be  a  capital 
offence,  according  to  the  decree  of  the  head  of  the  family 
(Gen.  xxxviii.  24).  As  to  the  prevalence  of  adultery  in 
this  semi-historic  period  we  are  not  informed.  We  can 
speak  with  more  definiteness  as  to  the  relations  of  people 
unmarried  or  unbetrothed.  These  were,  as  a  rule,  toler- 
ably innocent,  as  is  usually  the  case  among  a  nomadic 
people  of  long  endurance  and  established  fame.  There 
Mould  otherwise  have  been  no  guarantee  of  purity  of  race, 
the  first  essential  of  tribal  stability.  It  is  a  pleasing- 
feature  of  the  oldest  Hebrew  society,  as  also  of  the  oldest 
Arabian,  that  3roung  men  and  women  were  at  liberty  to 
consort  freely  with  one  another  —  a  thing  impossible  were 
sexual  irregularity  either  approved  or  frequent.  It  is  quite 
another  question  how  sexual  vice  was  regarded  from  the 
moral  point  of  view.  That  professional  harlotry  was  not 
unknown  to  the  earliest  Hebrew  society  we  have  abundant 
proof,  though  we  have  no  direct  evidence  that  any  mem- 
ber of  the  degraded  sisterhood  belonged  to  the  community 
of  Israel.  But  the  institution  of  sacred  prostitutes  was 
prevalent  among  the  Canaanites  of  the  time,  according  to 
the  stories  of  Genesis.  Significant  is  the  matter-of-fact 
way  in  which  the  notices  are  recorded.  The  act  ion 
ascribed  to  Judah  on  the  way  to  Timnah  (Gen.  xxxviii. 
15  ff.)  is  mentioned  as  the  most  natural  thing  in  the  world. 
§  958.  We  have  now  to  look  at  the  Hebrew  patri- 
archal society  from  a  point  of  view  which  more  nearly 
approaches  the  altruistic.  This  convenient  term  compre- 
hends the  various  sentiments  and  impulses  that  provoke 
to  deeds  of  self-sacrifice  in  any  form  —  magnanimity, 
generosity,  compassion,  self-denial.  It  suggests  directly 
the  essential  basis  of  morality,  which  in  all  ages  and 
places  rests  fundamentally  upon  the  giving  up  of  self. 
For   these   primitive   ages,   however,    the   two   qualities 


itO  VIRTUES   OF  ABRAHAM  Book  IX 

already  discussed  are  much  readier  tests  of  moral  progress 
than  those  about  to  be  considered.  Veracity  and  chastity 
are  virtues  which  presuppose  not  merely  a  strong  per- 
sonal self-discipline,  but  also  a  public  or  social  sentiment 
which  is  attained  only  after  a  long  period  of  education 
and  cultivation  has  gradually  raised  the  moral  standards  of 
the  community.  If,  therefore,  there  is  any  such  thing  as 
moral  progress  in  human  history,  these  later  virtues  must 
be  given  a  higher  place  than  the  more  primitive.  Qualities 
which  are  more  elementary  still,  such  as  endurance  and 
courage,  we  do  not  need  to  discuss  at  all.  They  are  found 
in  all  kinds  and  stages  of  society,  and,  in  fact,  may  be 
said  to  be  a  necessary  condition  of  the  survival  of  any 
society  whatever.  Indeed,  they  are  so  far  from  being  cri- 
teria of  moral  progress  that  they  are  not  even  exclusively 
human.  In  civilized  human  society  their  real  significance 
does  not  consist  in  their  exercise  or  display  by  itself,  but 
only  in  the  occasion  or  issue  that  has  called  them  forth. 
§  959.  Instances  of  generosity  and  magnanimity  are 
frequent  in  the  patriarchal  history.  In  the  character  of 
Abraham  these  virtues  are  perhaps  the  most  distinguished 
traits.  He  is  the  type  of  an  enterprising  chief  formed  to 
be  a  leader  of  men  and  the  pioneer  of  a  great  enterprise. 
It  is  a  true  instinct  which  associates  these  qualities  with 
such  an  epoch-making  man.  Of  the  moral  character  of 
Isaac  we  know  almost  nothing.  He  is  represented  as 
being  largely  under  the  control  of  his  cunning  Aramaean 
wife.  He  is  evidently  intended,  however,  to  be  merely  a 
connecting  link  between  Abraham,  the  head  of  the  race, 
and  Jacob,  the  head  of  the  nation.  Of  the  last-named  we 
cannot  find  any  positively  meritorious  trait  recorded. 
The  meaning  of  this  seems  to  be  that  while  his  story  is 
true  to  patriarchal  life,  it  is  also  a  reminiscence  of  the 
successful  endeavours  made  by  "Israel"  to  gain  a  footing 
among  the  nations  (cf.  §  955).  Thus  he  is  a  type  of  the 
national  advancement  generally,  — 

Tantce  molts  erat  Judceam  condere  gentem. 


Cii.  IV,  §  061       IDEAL   CHARACTER    OF   JOSEPH  91 

The  only  sort  of  nobleness  of  which  the  family  of  Isaac 
could  boast  is  to  be  credited  to  the  wild  and  passionate 
hunter  Esau,  the  type  of  laggard  races. 

§  900.  The  character  of  Joseph  presents  the  highest 
type  of  ancient  Hebrew  morality.  His  story  is  remarkable 
from  several  points  of  view.  But  its  most  remarkable 
feature  is  the  grandeur  and  symmetry  of  the  moral  por- 
traiture of  its  hero.  His  would  be  a  great  character  in 
any  age;  but  the  marvel  of  it  is  that  it  exhibits  a  life 
lived  in  that  primitive  stage  of  social  development  which, 
as  we  have  already  seen,  is  most  unfavourable  to  the 
manifestation  of  high  moral  qualities.  Fidelity,  honour, 
sense  of  personal  responsibility,  ideal  chastity,  magna- 
nimity, —  not  of  the  pagan,  not  of  the  Old  Testament,  but 
of  the  Christian  type,  —  these  are  some  of  the  traits  of  the 
favourite  son  of  the  subtle  and  selfish  Jacob.  The  easiest 
solution  is  that  the  story  is  an  idealizing  parable  drawn 
for  the  instruction  of  a  later  reflective  age  of  Israel's  his- 
tory. And  yet,  however  the  narrative  may  have  assumed 
its  present  literary  garb  at  a  later  date,  the  events  recorded 
are  not  impossible.  The  two  most  prominent  features  of 
Joseph's  character  are  his  fidelity  in  service  and  his  self- 
repression.  But  he  was  invested  with  responsibilities 
beyond  those  possible  in  the  semi-nomadic  environment 
of  his  early  days.  Trained  in  this  school,  he  meets  the 
supreme  temptation  with  an  answer  which  shows  that  he 
feels  himself  to  be  a  moral  trustee  (Gen.  xxxix.  8). 

§  961.  With  Joseph  there  is  a  still  more  solemn 
restraint:  "How  can  I  do  this  great  evil  and  sin  against 
God?"  Nothing  shows  more  clearly  than  this  the  excep- 
tional place  in  the  patriarchal  history  held  by  Joseph. 
The  others  are  typical  of  their  time  and  place.  But  such 
an  appeal  to  divine  authority  in  matters  of  moral  conduct 
stands  alone  in  the  early  Hebrew  history.  There  is  much 
said  of  religious  acts  on  the  part  of  the  patriarchs  and  of 
their  fidelity  to  Jehovah.  Their  faith  in  Him  determined 
also  their  course  in   important  matters.     But  we  do  not 


92  RELIGIOUS   ELEMENTS  Book  IX 

find  that  it  determined  them  strongly  and  steadily  toward 
righteousness  and  mercy.  What,  then,  is  their  signifi- 
cance in  the  history  of  morality?  They  were  men  of  large, 
original  genius  (§  445,  447).  True,  we  cannot  but  oppose 
the  view  that  sets  them  in  the  category  of  Old  Testament 
saints  and  moral  exemplars.  Yet  we  must  admire  the 
independence,  enterprise,  and  success  with  which  these 
early  leaders  of  the  race  broke  through  the  force  of  tradition 
and  custom  and  hewed  out  new  paths  for  themselves,  thus 
becoming  the  prototypes  and  forerunners  of  the  religious 
leaders  who  gave  character  to  the  later  Israel.  And  this 
they  did  most  conspicuously  in  their  faith  and  worship. 
If  they  were  historical  characters,  Jehovah  was  their  God, 
or  at  least  their  supreme  divinity.  The  narrative  is  con- 
sistent in  showing  how  they  came  to  discard  ancestor- 
worship  and  strange  deities  generally  (Gen.  xxxv.  2  ff.). 
§  962.  Such  adherence  to  Jehovah  did  not  of  itself 
constitute  morality.  It  was  merely  a  ceremonial,  and,  as 
it  would  appear  from  the  history  of  Jacob,  sometimes  a 
purely  selfish  form  of  primitive  religion.  But  we  are  not 
seeking  merely  for  evidences  of  high  moral  sentiment  and 
achievement.  What  we  desire  is  an  explanation  of  the 
morality  afterward  characteristic  of  Israel.  And  here,  as 
it  would  seem,  we  have  an  essential  antecedent.  While 
it  is  questionable  whether  in  any  age,  or  under  any  form 
of  civilization,  a  deep  and  true  morality  can  be  developed 
except  upon  the  foundation,  or  with  the  aid,  of  a  religious 
sanction,  it  is  certain  that  among  a  people  such  as  ancient 
Israel  religion  is  the  only  basis  of  any  morality  worthy 
the  name.  Where  industrial  pursuits  were  maintained 
systematically,  if  at  all,  by  exclusive  hereditary  guilds; 
where  commerce  was  confined  to  travelling  merchants  and 
occasional  caravans;  where  no  political  system  above  the 
assembly  of  the  elders  had  ever  been  devised,  the  indus- 
trial, or  commercial,  or  political  morality  that  has  formed 
the  precarious  support  of  the  great  western  civilizations 
was   beyond  attainment,  as   it  was  beyond  imagination. 


Ch.  IV,  §  904      RUDE   VIRTUES   OF   THE   JUDGES  93 

To  either  national  or  individual  morality  a  long  antece- 
dent process  of  discipline  is  a  prerequisite.  To  Israel 
such  a  discipline  could  only  come  through  the  religion 
whose  feeble  yet  sure  beginnings  were  made  by  the  fathers 
before  the  perilous  adventure  was  made  of  the  migration 
to  Egypt.  The  strenuous  adherence,  even  b}-  a  half-blind 
and  groping  instinct,  to  Jehovah  as  the  tribal  God  was  of 
itself  an  inward  exercise  that  had  a  moral  quality  of  its 
own.  So  true  is  that  saying  which  has  transfigured  the 
primitive  and  rudimentary  faith  of  the  founder  of  the  race: 
"  And  he  trusted  in  Jehovah,  and  he  reckoned  it  to  him 
as  righteousness  "  (Gen.  xv.  6). 

§  903.  What  do  we  find  to  be  the  moral  features  of 
Hebrew  societjr  in  the  period  of  the  judges?  Did  any 
decisive  changes  take  place  in  the  community  of  Israel 
which  would  tend  to  develop  the  national  and  individual 
conscience  and  make  it  a  controlling  force  in  speech  and 
act  as  between  Hebrew  and  Hebrew,  and  Hebrew  and 
foreigner?  Were  the  three  prime  qualities,  rectitude, 
chastity,  and  magnanimity,  largely  exemplified?  How 
did  the  occupations  of  the  people  and  their  general  social 
environment  affect  them?  It  must  be  confessed  that  the 
virtues  most  likely  to  be  encouraged  were  those  of  the 
hcii »ic  or  semi-barbarous  type.  Courage,  endurance, 
fidelity  to  clan,  family,  and  companions  in  arms,  must 
have  been  often  and  signally  displayed.  The  long 
struggle  with  the  native  Canaanites,  over  wide  areas  or 
in  isolated  holdings,  for  the  possession  of  fortresses,  fer- 
tile valleys  and  plains,  vineyards  and  olive  groves,  or 
with  various  swarms  of  foreign  invaders,  played  a  prin- 
cipal part  in  moulding  the  Hebrew  temper  into  strength, 
elasticity,  and  hardness.  It  was  this  discipline  that  gave 
to  Israel  the  resisting  and  recuperative  power  which  was 
and  is  the  marvel  of  the  ancient  and  modern  world. 

§  964.  Not  very  much  can  be  said  of  influences  favour- 
able to  the  development  of  the  rarer  and  more  precious 
moral  endowments  of  a  people,     in  a  community  trained 


94  TREACHERY  AND   UNCHASTITY  Book  IX 

to  irregular  warfare,  swift  reprisal,  deadly  revenge,  little 
stimulus  could  be  afforded  to  any  latent  or  incipient  open- 
ness or  candour  which  might  have  been  educed  in  the  more 
peaceful  occupations  of  earlier  days.  Ehud  (Jud.  iii.) 
can  be  a  moral  hero  only  to  those  who  hold  that  no  means 
are  reprehensible  which  can  secure  a  desirable  end.  Like 
his,  but  much  more  treacherous,  was  the  act  of  Jael,  the 
wife  of  Heber  the  Kenite.  In  it  we  have  not  only  gross 
deception,  but  a  violation  of  the  laws  of  hospitality,  which, 
when  it  has  once  been  freely  offered,  is  inviolable,  accord- 
ing to  all  inter-tribal  usage.  The  outrage  was  heightened 
by  the  circumstance  expressly  recorded  (Jud.  iv.  17)  that 
an  alliance  actually  subsisted  between  the  half-Israel- 
itish  Kenites  and  the  followers  of  the  Canaanitish  king. 
Moreover,  the  splendid  lyric  which  celebrates  the  triumph 
of  Israel  over  the  last  great  combination  of  the  Canaanites 
counts  Jael  blessed  above  all  women  who  dwell  in  tents 
(Jud.  v.  24),  because  she  had  come  to  the  help  of  Jeho- 
vah (cf.  v.  23)  by  deluding  into  fatal  security  an  enemy 
of  his  people. 

§  965.  Such  cases  are  characteristic  of  the  times  and  the 
people,  and  so  stand  out  boldly  in  the  record.  How  was 
it  in  this  period  with  the  virtue  of  chastity?  A  sample 
or  two  will  suffice  to  show  that  the  standard  of  morals 
had  not  been  raised  during  this  later  period.  Gideon, 
one  of  the  best-approved  leaders  of  Israel,  had  not  only 
many  wives,  but  a  concubine  as  well.  What  we  call 
lust  in  Mohammed  we  can  only  extenuate  in  Gideon  on 
the  ground  that  he  lived  in  a  remoter  age.  Jephthah 
was  the  son  of  a  harlot.  Samson  resorted  to  harlots  as  a 
matter  of  habit.  Delilah,  in  spite  of  her  Hebrew  name, 
may  have  been  a  Philistine.  But  the  Baal  worship  which 
was  rife  in  most  of  Israel  during  this  whole  period  must 
have  brought  with  it  its  due  measure  of  licentiousness 
more  or  less  professional.  Concubinage  was  but  one 
remove  from  harlotry  (Jud.  xix.  1  ff.).  A  still  darker 
shadow  is  seen  to  rest  upon  at  least  a  portion  of  the  land 


Ch.  IV,  §967  ALTRUISTIC    VIRTUES  95 

in  the  prevalence  of  the  worse  than  bestial  crime  in  the 
city  of  Gibeah  (xix.  22).  Israel,  as  a  whole,  was  at  last 
shocked  into  horror  and  indignation.  But  the  succeed- 
ing narrative,  ending  with  the  rough  and  ready  method 
of  securing  wives  by  capture  (xxi.  21  ft0.),  recalls  vividly 
the  essential  spirit  of  the  people  and  the  age,  their  primi- 
tive habits  and  manners,  and  their  rudimentary  conception 
of  the  saving  virtues  of  society. 

§  966.  An  aspect  scarcely  more  favourable  is  presented 
by  the  practice  of  the  altruistic  virtues.  At  least,  the 
book  of  Judges  gives  no  suggestion  of  their  prevalence. 
It  is  to  be  admitted  that  allusions  to  the  gentler  side  of 
life  and  conduct  are  hardly  to  be  expected  in  the  memorials 
of  a  rude  and  warlike  age,  which  naturally  record  only 
extreme  instances.  And  among  the  larger  households  in 
the  more  settled  districts,  particularly  in  the  later  days 
of  the  judges,  there  were  doubtless  many  manifestations 
of  neighbourly  kindness  and  perhaps  even  of  chivalrous 
generosity.  The  institution  of  the  goel  especially  gave 
scope  and  occasion  for  actions  of  the  latter  class.  While 
in  the  rudeness  and  savagery  of  the  times  the  services  of 
the  protector  of  kinship  were  perhaps  most  frequently  in 
demand  as  an  avenger  of  blood  (Ex.  xxi.  12  ff.),  the 
necessities  of  unfortunate  kinsfolks,  particularly  of  widows 
and  orphans,  must  have  evoked  innate  feelings  of  compas- 
sion and  sympathy  in  many  a  heart.  Such  a  traditional 
picture  as  that  which  is  presented  at  the  close  of  the  book 
of  Ruth  can  scarcely  represent  an  isolated  instance.  It  is 
not  to  be  supposed,  however,  that  this  is  an  indication  of 
the  prevailing  type  of  manners. 

§  967.  It  was  scarcely  possible  that  any  essential 
change  in  the  national  morals  could  take  place  during  the 
historical  period  immediately  following  tin-  judges.  Yet 
the  early  vicissitudes  of  the  kingdom  had  a  great  deal  to 
do  with  building  up  the  national  character.  And  it  was 
especially  the  new  spirit  infused  into  the  people  by  the 
personality  and  achievements  of  David  that  prepared  the 


90  UNITED    ISRAEL   AND   THE   TEMPLE  Book  IX 

way  for  that  larger  nationalism  which  made  possible  an 
historic  Israel  and  is  even  yet  not  extinct  in  Judaism. 
The  predominant  note  of  the  rise  of  the  monarchy  is  patri- 
otism. The  deliverance  of  the  individual  family  groups, 
the  first  thought  of  the  beleaguered  clansmen,  was  found 
to  depend  upon  common  action  against  the  Philistines. 
The  idea  of  a  united  Israel  was  first  realized  under  Saul 
at  the  instance  of  the  prophet-priest-judge  Samuel.  The 
rising  tide  of  loyalty  to  Jehovah  and  his  cause,  as  against 
the  aliens  and  their  gods,  swelled  by  the  first  successes 
of  Saul  and  still  more  by  the  heroic  daring  of  Jonathan, 
Mas  checked  by  the  king's  mental  and  moral  collapse; 
it  retreated  with  the  defection  of  David  and  the  ensuing 
intestine  strife;  it  fell  to  its  lowest  ebb  with  the  tragedy 
of  Gilboa.  The  accession  of  David  to  the  tottering 
throne,  and  his  steady  advance  to  preeminence,  first 
within  Israel  itself  and  thereafter  in  Palestine  and  the 
whole  of  the  West-land,  were  the  real  making  of  Israel 
into  a  nation.  No  later  failures  or  disgrace  or  ruptures 
could  efface  the  memory  of  this  triumph;  nor  could  any 
subsequent  national  success  rival  it  as  an  ideal  of  kingly 
achievement  or  as  a  measure  of  Israel's  greatness. 

§  908.  There  was  now  wanting  but  one  deep  common 
source  of  inspiration,  one  cardinal  element  of  national 
solidarity, — a  central,  dominant  sanctuary.  This  idea, 
cherished  so  fondly  by  David,  was  realized  in  the  temple 
of  Solomon.  Thus  were  established  at  last  the  main 
outward  conditions  of  a  permanent  state  under  the  most 
potent  of  guarantees.  But  of  far  more  enduring  impor- 
tance than  the  promise  of  political  stability,  soon  to  be 
so  rudely  disturbed,  was  the  foundation  then  laid  for 
progress  in  morality  and  for  the  practice  of  a  religion 
which  should  be  something  more  than  ceremonial  for- 
malism. The  larger  relations  of  political,  business,  and 
social  life  then  inaugurated  gradually  brought  with  them 
a  sense  of  responsibility  which  must  have  sobered  and 
steadied  the   new  self-conscious  community.     The  oath 


Ch.  IV,  §969  THE  HEROIC  VIRTUES  97 

or  the  vow  made  before  Jehovah  became  more  binding 
with  the  recognition  of  his  enthronement  for  righteous- 
ness upon  Mount  Zion,  the  place  where  he  had  chosen 
to  set  his  name.  It  is  not  necessary  to  inquire  now  how 
and  when  such  claims  were  ignored  or  weakened.  We 
ma}-  content  ourselves  with  remarking  that  while  these 
were  conditions  essential  to  moral  advancement,  they 
might  naturally  be  expected  to  be  only  slowly  opera- 
tive, finding  their  true  scope  and  vindication  in  a  later 
time.  What,  however,  we  wish  particularly  to  know  is 
the  actual  moral  standing  of  the  best  men  of  Israel  in  this 
age  of  the  early  or  undivided  monarchy.  Examples  here 
crowd  upon  us,  and  we  must  limit  ourselves  in  the  choice. 
§  969.  Again,  we  have  to  emphasize  the  prominence 
of  the  military  or  heroic  virtues.  This  is,  in  fact,  pre- 
eminently the  heroic  age  of  Israel.  Physical  courage  was 
universal,  as  befitted  a  people  engaged  in  a  protracted  life 
and  death  struggle.  Not  to  lack  of  bravery,  but  to  want 
of  discipline,  to  the  decline  of  the  kingly  qualities  in  the 
monarch,  to  the  effect  of  panic  fear  in  a  superstitious  age, 
are  to  be  ascribed  the  half-heartedness  and  the  frequent 
retreats  of  the  armies  of  Israel  during  the  regime  of 
Samuel  and  Saul.  Of  individual  prowess  every  leader 
gave  proof  during  the  whole  of  the  period.  David's 
worthies  (2  Sam.  xxiii.)  were  a  product  of  the  spirit 
that  was  now  moving  in  Israel  like  a  lung  pent-up  flood. 
They  were  the  flower  of  that  age  of  Hebrew  chivalry. 
Nor  was  there  larking  that  self-devotion  which  in  the 
undisciplined  warfare  of  a  struggling  community  is  really 
more  heroic  than  the  most  gallant  charge  of  a  regular 
army.  No  deed  of  daring  done  by  David's  men,  inspired 
by  his  example,  could  surpass  the  brilliant  achievement  of 
Saul's  knightly  son  at  Michmash.  A  nation  which  bred 
such  heroes  could  scarcely  hereafter  be  utterly  ignoble. 
And  in  these  actions,  the  theme  of  sung  and  Legend 
till  the  latest  generation,  were  indirect  occasions  of  nobler 
manners  and  purer  motives  throughout  the  moral  realm, 
ii 


98  DAVID'S   DECEIT  AND   TREACHERY.  Book  IX 

No  man  can  risk  his  life  non-professionally  in  a  worthy 
cause  without  being  stirred  to  the  depths  of  his  soul  by  an 
il.ct ric  thrill  which  reacts  b}r  moral  sympathy  through 
his  whole  spiritual  nature.  The  clods,  once  disturbed  by 
celestial  fire,  were  henceforth  magnetic  and  responsive  to 
the  touch  of  spiritual  forces  which  else  had  found  and 
left  them  useless  and  dead. 

§  970.  But  these  secondary  movements  had  as  37et 
scarcely  begun ;  and  it  is  a  sad  descent  that  brings  us  to 
the  level  of  the  everyday  morals  of  the  early  monarchy. 
The  virtue  of  veracity  seems  especially  wanting  in  the 
make-up  of  the  men  of  the  period.  For  the  sake  of  brevity 
we  shall  confine  ourselves  to  the  career  of  David.  We 
are  at  once  struck  with  the  fact  that  whenever  any  danger 
threatened,  if  a  falsehood  served  his  turn  it  was  immedi- 
ately employed  (1  Sam.  xix.  13  ff. ;  xx.  5  ff. ;  xxi.  2  ; 
xxvii.  10  ff. ;  2  Sam.  xv.  34).  He  deceived  friends  and 
enemies  indifferently.  It  was  especially  in  his  relations 
with  the  Philistines  that  deceit  was  systematically  prac- 
tised, ranging  from  simple  disguise  to  the  grossest  of 
falsehoods.  His  affair  with  his  faithful  servant,  Uriah 
the  Hettite,  shows  him  at  his  worst.  There  is  probably 
no  record  of  treachery  and  lying  consistently  pursued 
that  surpasses  this  in  remorseless  cruelty  and  moral  base- 
in--.  If  the  narrative  contained  all  that  we  know  of 
David,  the  deed  would  have  been  universally  regarded  as 
one  almost  unequalled  in  the  foul  and  blood-stained  annals 
of  kingly  rule.  We  may  at  any  rate  say  this  about  the 
matter,  that  it  belonged  to  the  stage  in  David's  life  when 
he  was  as  yet  untouched  b}'  any  deep  religious  feeling. 

§  071.  In  the  relations  between  the  sexes  we  see  at 
best  no  marked  advance.  Not  to  speak  of  polygamy, 
concubinage  was  fashionable  in  the  best  families.  The 
promptness  with  which  David,  the  outlaw  chief,  espoused 
the  wife  of  the  newly  dead  Nabal,  and  with  which  David, 
the  king,  made  a  lawful  wife  of  the  widow  of  the  mur- 
dered Uriah,  speaks  plainly  of  the  subserviency  of  well- 


Ch.  IV,  §  072  SEXUAL   VICE  99 

born  women.  The  act  of  Absalom,  by  which  he  proclaimed 
to  all  Israel  his  usurpation  of  his  father's  rights  (2  Sain, 
xvi.  21  f.),  does  not  appear  to  have  shocked  the  moral 
sensibilities  of  his  fellow-citizens,  or  even  of  the  "elders 
of  Israel"  (2  Sam.  xvii.  4),  who  still  adhered  to  his 
cause.  In  the  more  enlightened  time  of  Solomon,  the 
increase  in  outward  prosperity  and  the  glamour  of  a 
brilliant  court  were  the  accompaniment  of  gross  and 
unbridled  sensuality.  David's  harem,  extensive  as  it 
was,  could  not  compare  with  that  of  Solomon.  And  one 
knows  little  of  social  history,  or  of  human  nature,  if  one 
supposes  that  the  evil  of  excessive  self-indulgence  was 
confined  to  the  recreant  who  sat  on  the  throne,  and  who 
in  these  vital  matters  was  a  law  unto  himself.  Courtiers 
and  nobles,  and  the  wealthy  and  fashionable  generally, 
were  as  certain  then  as  they  are  now  to  imitate  and  rival 
the  sins  and  follies  of  a  prince.  Nor  was  sexual  vice 
confined  to  the  legalized  license  of  polygamy  and  con- 
cubinage. The  worship  of  the  foreign  deities  introduced 
by  Solomon  along  with  his  heathen  wives  of  necessity 
included  religious  prostitution.  True,  we  still  have  no 
reason  to  suppose  that  many  daughters  of  Hebrew  families 
gave  themselves  to  this  or  to  any  form  of  illegitimate  vice, 
"for  no  such  thing  ought  to  be  done  in  Israel "  (2  Sam. 
xiii.  12).  But  Ashtoreth,  the  goddess  of  the  Sidonians  or 
Phoenicians  (1  K.  xi.  5),  could  not  enjoy  the  royal  patron- 
age without  enforcing  the  usages  inseparable  from  her 
debasing  cult. 

§  972.  What  shall  be  said  of  the  practice  of  the  altru- 
istic virtues  during  the  earlier  times  of  the  monarchy? 
The  imagination  summons  up  at  once  the  figure  of  the 
heroic  and  magnanimous  Jonathan.  An  age  which  pro- 
duced a  man  so  unique  in  nobility  of  soul  should  not  be 
called  (piite  morally  barren.  We  are  seeking,  however, 
for  cases  of  sympathy  with  the  poor  and  oppressed,  the 
friendless  and  the  weak,  and  of  the  relaxation  of  the  piti- 
less code  of  revenge  upon  family,  or  personal,  or  national 


100  BLOOD-REVENGE   AND   TRIBALISM  Book  IX 

enemies.  Of  what  was  done  in  private  we  know  little. 
The  temper  of  representative  men  may  best  be  judged  of 
by  their  conduit  toward  their  rivals  or  foes.  David's 
treatment  of  the  Moabites  (2  Sam.  viii.    2)  and   of  the 

A  mini  mites  (2  Sam.  xii.  31)  was  a  war  measure,  and  was 
neither  better  nor  worse  than  that  which  the  Assyrian 
kings  before  and  after  his  time  boasted  of  inflicting  upon 
obstinate  rebels.  The  claims  of  blood  revenge  were 
enforced  as  remorselessly  as  in  the  days  of  Gideon  (Jud. 
viii.  18  ff.).  The  circle  of  leading  men  that  stood  nearest 
to  David  suffered  particularly  from  the  law  of  reprisal. 
To  his  account  must  be  reckoned  the  pitiful  fate  of  Riz- 
pah,  the  daughter  of  Aiah,  and  of  her  innocent  children, 
done  to  a  shameful  death  as  the  victim  of  a  blood  feud. 
True  it  is  that  repentance  here  again  manifested  itself,  and 
that  he  sought  to  quiet  the  soul  of  the  comfortless  mother, 
and  to  reunite  in  Sheol  the  distracted  ghosts  of  the  family 
lie  had  supplanted  (2  Sam.  xxi.  11  ff.). 

§  973.  It  is  now  time,  however,  to  draw  some  general 
conclusions  as  to  that  portion  of  Israel's  history  which  we 
have  been  permitted  to  survey.  In  the  first  place,  Ave  see 
how  morality  still  moved  and  worked  its  way  within  the 
sphere  of  the  family,  the  clan,  and  the  tribe.  Its  sanc- 
tions sprang  from  the  beliefs  of  the  community  rather  than 
from  the  independent  conviction  of  the  individual;  cus- 
tom ruled  rather  than  conscience,  prescription  rather  than 
self-impulsion.  One  essential  ground  of  the  limitation  is 
obvious.  Duties  and  employments  were  few  and  simple. 
These  were  prescribed  by  paternal  injunction;  and  when 
spontaneously  assumed  they  created  no  new  conditions 
that  would  bring  intelligence  into  play  and  so  evoke  the 
moral  sense  through  the  balancing  of  conflicting  claims. 
Secondly,  the  most  striking  apparent  exceptions  to  this 
general  fact  were  the  leaders  of  the  people,  who  seemed 
to  strike  out  new  paths  for  themselves,  or  were  commis- 
sioned to  fulfil  higher  functions  than  any  yet  known  to 
the  nation. 


Ch.  IV,  §975  PUBLIC   TEACHERS;   SAMUEL  101 

§  1*74.  But  we  have  now  to  take  account  of  a  moral 
factor  of  the  first  importance  :  I  mean  the  public  teachers. 
The  great  popular  leaders  from  the  time  of  the  earliest 
judges  till  the  end  of  the  undivided  kingdom,  had  very 
little  to  do  with  the  moral  education  of  the  nation.  The 
judges  themselves  appear  to  have  done  little  to  rectify 
popular  misconduct.  Nor  were  the  priests,  whose  duties 
included  also  the  judicial  function  (§  585  f.),  conspicuous 
for  their  high  sense  of  moral  obligation.  The  sons  of 
Eli  and  the  sons  of  Samuel,  who  came  into  office  as  a 
matter  of  course  by  hereditary  succession,  are  much  more 
likely  to  have  represented  the  average  priest  and  judge 
than  their  fathers,  who  are  singled  out  for  special  distinc- 
tion. What  we  learn  of  the  influence  of  the  religious 
officials  comes  out  naturally  in  their  bearing  toward  the 
leading  men  of  the  time.  In  this  matter  two  interesting 
points  declare  themselves.  First,  we  notice  that  no  inter- 
ference is  made  with  the  conduct  of  any  influential  man 
till  the  time  of  the  kings.  Second,  it  is  a  new  order  of 
men  who  attempt  a  reformation  in  public  morals.  These 
men  were  the  prophets. 

§  975.  What,  then,  was  the  character  of  this  epoch- 
making  intervention  by  the  prophets?  The  first  instance 
is  that  of  Samuel  in  his  role  of  mentor  and  censor  to  King 
Saul.  And  here  we  are  surprised  to  find  that  he  does  not 
appear  to  have  intervened  in  questions  of  morality  at  all. 
His  only  recorded  protest  against  Saul's  conduct  is  made 
on  the  ground  of  disobedience  to  an  arbitrary  command 
(1  Sam.,  chap.  XV.).  When  Saul  spared  Agag  and  the 
best  of  the  spoil,  it  cannot  be  maintained  that  he  did  what 
was  wrong  in  itself.  Unfortunately  we  can,  on  the  other 
hand,  hardly  visit  with  stern  condemnation  the  terrible 
war  of  extermination  waged  by  Israel.  Such  conflicts  — 
blood  feuds  on  a  larger  scale-  were  the  order  of  the  day 
among  the  neighbouring  peoples  of  the  time,  and  Israel 
had  suffered  more  than  Amalek  in  the  long  series  of  re- 
prisals.     Nor  can  we  put  Saul's  comparative  moderation 


102  SAMUEL   AND   NATHAN  Book  IX 

to  the  credit  of  his  humanity.  His  preservation  of  Agag 
was  too  much  a  departure  from  the  prevailing  usages  of 
war  to  have  been  intended  for  more  than  a  temporary 
purpose.  On  the  whole,  it  would  appear  that  the  rebuke 
to  Saul,  and  the  terrible  penalty  annexed  thereto,  were 
inflicted  not  on  the  ground  of  the  inherent  wrongfulness 
of  his  acts,  but  because  he  had  not  deferred  to  the  pro- 
phetic word. 

^  976.  Samuel's  significance  generally,  in  the  history  of 
Old  Testament  morals,  may  be  thus  stated:  He  is  the 
first  in  the  long  list  of  the  leaders  of  Israel  whose  conduct 
in  fundamental  matters  of  morality  is  brought  directly 
into  view  (1  Sam.  xii.  3).  The  last  of  the  judges,  he  is 
the  first  the  character  of  whose  administration  of  justice 
is  spoken  of  at  all.  He  tolerated  the  institution  of  the 
monarch}*,  but  made  it  the  prime  essential  of  the  charac- 
ter of  the  king  that  he  should  bow  to  the  will  of  Jehovah, 
and  to  his  representative,  the  prophet-priest.  He  virtu- 
ally founded  the  prophetic  guilds,  the  chief  conservative 
influence  in  the  life  of  northern  Israel.  His  services  to 
morality  were  great,  but  mainly  indirect  and  potential. 

§  (J77.  A  distinct  advance  along  one  line  was  made  by 
the  next  kingly  mentor,  the  prophet  Nathan.  His  rebuke 
of  David  for  his  most  atrocious  crime  goes  to  the  founda- 
tion of  the  moral  principle  of  conduct.  As  his  parable 
shows,  it  looks  at  David's  sin  in  the  light  of  his  relation 
to  his  environment  :  it  shows  the  disturbance  (or  wrong) 
thereb}'  occasioned  in  the  system  of  which  he  was  the 
moral  centre.  To  stigmatize  a  sin  as  a  sin  on  account  of 
its  selfishness  was  something  new  in  the  recorded  history 
of  the  world.  True,  the  outrage  was  so  obvious  that  it 
could  not  well  escape  challenge  ;  but  it  is  just  one  of  the 
providential  occasions  of  moral  evolution  that  men  and 
communities  should  be  startled  into  a  sense  for  better 
things  by  a  sudden  revelation  of  the  effect  of  their 
offences.  Such  a  case  is  isolated,  to  be  sure,  in  the  moral 
ministry  of  the  prophets  of  the  time.      But  the  crime  was 


Cn.  IV,  §  979         SOLOMON  AND   HIS  CENSORS  103 

rank  and  grievous,  and  as  it  struck  at  the  sanctity  and 
peace  of  the  home  of  the  common  man  in  Israel  it  was 
made  monumental.  The  rule  that  the  sins  and  follies  of 
a  monarch  excite  emulation  rather  than  repulsion,  finds 
in  this  instance,  at  least,  a  wholesome  exception. 

§  078.  It  is  remarkable  that  no  prophet  appears  as  a 
censor  of  morals  till  the  time  of  the  divided  kingdom 
with  the  exception  of  Gad,  who  acted  as  the  minister  of 
Jehovah  in  connection  with  David's  ambitious  scheme  to 
take  a  census  of  Israel.  On  the  other  hand,  we  find  in 
the  person  of  Nathan  the  prophetic  influence  wielded  in 
behalf  of  the  cruel  and  treacherous  intrigue  through 
which  the  rivals  of  Solomon  were  put  out  of  the  way  (2  K. 
i.).  The  moral  paradox  is  solved  when  we  consider  that 
the  paramount  interest  was  the  preservation  of  the  state, 
in  the  furthering  of  which  the  individual  was  made  of  lit- 
tle account.  Thereafter  Solomon  seems  to  have  dispensed 
with  prophetic  help  and  guidance.  His  only  religious 
achievement,  the  building  of  the  temple,  being  an  affair 
of  worship  and  ritual,  was  done  under  the  auspices  of  the 
priests.  On  the  whole,  his  reign  was  probably  more  harm- 
ful to  public  and  private  morals  than  that  of  any  other 
king  of  either  Israel  or  Judah,  with  the  possible  exception 
of  Manasseh. 

§  979.  It  is  significant,  however,  that  the  secession  of 
northern  Israel  was  instigated  by  a  prophet  of  Jehovah 
(1  K.  xi.  29  ff.).  Among  the  considerations  that  impelled 
him  was  doubtless  the  fact  that  Solomon's  extravagance 
and  exactions  were  injuring  Israel  as  a  whole  and  mak- 
ing the  predominance  of  Judah  a  national  curse.1  lie  thus 
follows  in  the  line  of  Nathan  and  Gad  (£  977  f.).  But 
what  Judah  thus  lost  in  moral  character  and  prestige  as 
compared  with  the  "  Ten  Tribes,"  it  more  than  made  up 
finally  through  the  possession  of  a  temple  free  from  Lmage- 


1  Notice  also  that  Ahijah  was  of  Shiloh,  in  the  wry  heart  of  the  terri- 
tory of  the  rival  and  much-wronged  tribe  of  Ephraim. 


104  MORALITY    IX   NORTHERN    ISRAEL  Book  IX 

worship  :  while  the  semi-idolatry  instigated  by  Jeroboam 
I,  and  the  political  unsettlement  of  his  kingdom,1  with 
its  accompaniment  of  intrigue,  proscription,  and  murder, 
defeated  the  worthy  ends  aimed  at  in  the  revolution. 

§  980.  We  thus  see  a  growth  in  moral  sensibility 
among  the  religious  leaders  of  Israel,  and  we  also  dis- 
cern the  principle  of  its  development.      It  was  the  harm 

.1 to  tin'  people  of  Jehovah  which  awakened  a  sense 

of  the  wrath  of  Jehovah  himself.  This  can  hardly  be 
called  as  yet  a  genuine  sense  of  sin  ;  for  in  the  first  place. 
the  feeling  aroused  was  fear  rather  than  sorrow,  and,  in 
the  second  place,  it  Avas  as  members  of  the  community 
rather  than  as  individuals  that  the  responsibility  was 
felt.  Yet  here  was  the  germ  of  spiritual  morality,  and 
this  was  the  region  in  which  it  unfolded  itself,  for  only 
thus  could  that  consciousness  of  wrong-doing  be  awakened 
which  is  of  the  essence  of  the  saving  repentance  that 
seeks  and  gains  forgiveness.  But  the  story  is  a  long 
one,  and  we  must  be  content  if  we  can  follow  its  leading 
motives. 

§  981.  Our  next  glimpse  of  moral  progress  in  Israel  is 
gained  from  the  memorable  reign  of  Ahab.  The  tumultu- 
ous times  of  the  first  dynasties  were  over,  and  Omri  had 
made  himself  strong  at  home  and  abroad  (§  212).  His  son 
came  to  the  kingdom  as  a  matter  of  course,  and  the  sense 
of  power  without  responsibility  (1  K.  xxi.  7),  the  typical 
Oriental  absolutism,  bore  its  natural  fruits.  There  was 
nothing  upon  which  he  might  not  lay  his  hand,  not  even 
the  patrimony  of  one  of  the  people  of  Jehovah.  When 
he  seized  the  estate  of  Naboth  the  wrong  was  irreligion, 
and  therefore  immorality.  -Jehovah  was  the  owner  of  the 
land,  and  Naboth  was  his  tenant  (§  580).  Besides,  the 
patrimony  was  a  sacred  trust  for  his  family  (xxi.  •">  I, 
where  rested  the  dust  of  his  ancestors  under  the  guardian- 
ship of  Jehovah. 

i  Cf.  Montefiore,  Hihbcrt  Lectures  (1892),  p.  85  f. 


Ch.  IV,  §  983  AIIAB,    NABOTH   AND    ELIJAH  105 


§  982.  Very  probably  this  act  of  oppression  and  prof- 
anation did  not  stand  alone  in  the  reign  or  time  of  Ahab. 
But,  like  the  great  transgression  of  David,  it  was  because 
it  ended  in  an  appalling  tragedy  that  it  became  monu- 
mental. The  vengeance  denounced  against  the  offender  is 
a  measure  of  the  offence.  This  is  a  rare  historic  occasion. 
It  makes  us  feel  at  one  with  the  outraged  people  of  Israel. 
As  Ave  shudder  with  their  horror  at  the  deed,  we  follow 
them  with  eager  sympathy  in  their  gradual  appreciation  of 
its  essential  wickedness.  Indignation  at  the  conspiracy, 
the  judicial  murder,  the  robbery,  was  followed  by  a  moral 
revulsion  at  the  enormity  of  the  misdeed.  It  was  the 
crime  against  the  community  which  stirred  the  common 
heart.  Every  freeman  in  Israel  was  for  the  moment  a 
Naboth  in  imagination,  at  the  mercy  of  a  rapacious  king 
and  a  cruel,  lustful  queen.  Ordinary  petty  wrongs  done 
to  persons  or  to  property  were  a  matter  of  course  from 
the  days  of  old.  They  were  the  mere  trickling  of  a 
mountain  stream.  This  was  the  breaking  up  of  the  foun- 
tains of  the  great  deep.  The  sense  of  being  wronged 
grew  into  the  sense  of  wrong,  and  the  offence  against 
Israel  was  felt  to  be  a  sin  against  Jehovah.  It  was  the 
word  of  the  great  prophet  that  startled  the  true  Israel 
into  a  knowledge  of  itself.  The  message  came  in  thunder- 
tones,  and  between  the  strokes  gleamed  the  lightning- 
flashes  of  revelation.  It  was  not  a  very  clear  or  sus- 
tained illumination,  but  it  served  God's  turn  and  man's 
need. 

§  983.  With  Elijah  prophecy  enlarged  its  range  and  its 
depth.  The  prophet  was  no  longer  a  mere  seer  or  oracle 
or  mentor  of  princes.  lie  was  the  guardian  and  censor 
of  national  morals ;  in  short,  a  preacher  and  teacher.  But, 
what  is  even  more  important  to  observe,  there  was  a  cor- 
responding advance;  among  the  best  minds  and  spirits  of 
his  people.  Let  us  learn,  once  for  all,  that  the  prophet 
never  stood  quite  alone,  and  that  lie  was,  apart  from  his 
special  commission,  merely  a  foremost  representative  of  a 


106  A    COMMON    MORAL    INTEREST  Book  IX 

class  or  society  or  school.  We  arc  warned  of  the  clanger 
of  overlooking  this  obvious  sociological  and  psychological 
principle  by  the  reminder  which  was  addressed  to  Elijah 
himself  at  the  very  opening  of  this  new  era  of  prophecy 
(  1  Iv.  xix.  18). :  The  essential  thing  for  the  future  was 
that  from  this  time  onward  there  was  a  worthy  common 
cause  and  common  interest,  and  a  party  in  the  state  that 
stood  for  the  rights  of  the  defenceless  and  the  oppressed 
on  the  ground  of  religion  and  justice,  and  in  whose  con- 
sciousness the  practical  conflicts  of  rights  and  wrongs 
wrought  out  a  sense  of  the  necessary  antithesis  of  right 
and  wrong. 

§  '.'84.  The  fortunes  of  this  class  or  party  in  their  rela- 
tion to  society  and  public  life  have  already  been  sketched 
(§  597  ff.).  The  perpetual  antagonism  and  ever  widen- 
ing chasm  between  the  rich  and  the  poor,  the  oppressor 
and  the  oppressed,  the  wicked  and  the  pious,  are  depicted 
in  letters  of  flame  by  Amos,  Hosea,  Isaiah,  and  Micah, 
and  here  we  need  not  reproduce  the  familiar  picture. 
What  concerns  us  now  is  to  see  how  the  idea  of  moral 
responsibility,  once  awakened,  was  developed  up  to  the 
time  of  Josiah.  For  this  end  we  cannot  do  better  than  sum 
up  the  essential  conditions  of  moral  progress,  giving  first 
those  which  are  inward  or  subjective,  and  then  those  which 
are  subjective  and  external.  The  summary  necessarily  con- 
sists in  part  of  a  resume  of  previous  observations. 

§  985.  1.  A  purer  and  loftier  conception  of  the  charac- 
ter of  Jehovah.  Morality  has  never  progressed  in  any 
community  without  the  stimulus  of  a  religious  sanction. 
Men  have  looked  to  their  gods  or  God  as  requiring  from 
them  the  most  solemn  duties  of  their  lives.  Moreover, 
something  besides  mere  ceremonial  service  is  always 
thought  to  be  demanded.  Even  where  the  crudest  forms 
of  faith  and  worship  prevail,  and  where  morality  in  the 


1  "Seven  thousand"'  is  merely  a  very  general  number,  and  possibly 
stands  here  for  a  much  larser  sum  of  faithful  adherents  of  Jehovah. 


Ch.  IV,  §  987      IDEALS    AND    WORSHIP   OF   THE    DEITY  107 

positive  sense  can  hardly  be  predicated  of  the  votaries, 
such  duties  as  are  incumbent  on  them  (that  is,  whatever 
has  the  character  of  solemn  obligation,  the  motive  of  all 
moral  action)  are  regarded  as  the  will  of  the  supernatural 
being  who  is  the  head  and  patron  of  the  community. 
And  among  the  Semites  deference  to  the  will  of  the  deity 
is  usually  absolute.  As  their  vocabulary  indicates,  they 
had  really  no  "will"  of  their  own  :  the  only  real  agents 
in  the  world  were  their  divinities.  This  conception  is 
both  cause  and  effect  of  their  singular  religiousness.  It 
explains  also  their  exclusiveness,  their  fanaticism,  their 
deadly  persistency.  Given  a  wrong  or  debasing  view  of 
the  desire  of  the  deity  and  they  are  the  most  hopelessly 
intractable  and  noxious  of  mortals,  (liven  a  lofty  and 
inspiring  view  of  the  deity  and  they  become  the  elect  of 
their  species.  This  is  a  master-key  to  Hebrew  Prophet- 
ism,  Christianity,  and  Mohammedanism.  Hence  in  pro- 
portion as  the  conception  of  the  character  of  the  presiding 
and  informing  deity  is  raised  and  refined  the  nature  of 
his  requirements  is  correspondingly  purified  and  exalted. 
That  is,  moral  motive  and  conduct  change  for  the  better. 

§  986.  2.  A  divorce  between  the  worship  of  the  single 
and  only  true  God  and  the  adoration  or  service  of  any  and 
all  other  objects  of  devotion.  This  is  only  accomplished  as 
the  individual  learns  by  experience  the  emptiness  and 
spiritual  unsatisfactoriness  of  false;  worship  —  not  merely 
the  helplessness  of  the  false  gods  ;  because  to  a  people 
gradually  emerging  from  superstition  such  a  tact  is  not 
so  easily  demonstrated.  With  this  experience  goes  the 
practical  observation  that  God  does  not  always  punish  his 
enemies  directly,  but  that  lie  does  reward  those  who  tear 
him  and  do  his  will  :  the  sense  of  the  ncn  and  the  roittN 
of  Jehovah  ;  the  completion  of  the  formula,  "Surely  God 
is  good  to  Israel,"  by  the  addition,  "to  such  as  are  pure 
in  heart"  (Ps.  lxxiii.  1). 

§  987.  3.  In  this  way  a  new  and  higher  conception  of 
society  is   eventually   gained.     The    ideal    of   the   social 


108  PERSONAL   TRIAL;   NATIONAL   UNITY         Book  IX 

order  is  no  longer  the  family,  the  elan,  the  tribe,  or  even 
i lie  organized  nation,  but  the  people  of  Jehovah.  A  new 
community  arises  from  the  riving  of  the  old,  containing 
the  genus  of  indefinite  progress  and  expansion. 

§  988.  4.  On  the  side  of  conduct  there  must  be  a  practice 
of  the  common  virtues  which  are  at  once  the  mainstay  of 
the  social  order  and  the  expression  of  the  will  of  Jehovah: 
honesty,  chastity,  mercy,  and  helpfulness.  These  and 
other  essential  virtues  can  only  be  maintained  along  with 
the  vindication  of  the  lofty  character  and  the  pure  wor- 
ship of  Jehovah.  This  vindication  can  be  accomplished 
only  after  and  through  an  inevitable  prolonged  struggle 
between  parties  in  the  community  and  the  state.  Only 
by  suffering,  discipline,  and  the  enduring  of  wrong  can 
the  principles  of  a  party  of  righteousness  be  put  to  the 
proof  and  finally  secure  a  moral  triumph  :  — 

"  There  is  no  gain  except  by  loss, 
There  is  no  life  except  by  death ; 
There  is  no  glory  but  by  shame, 
No  justice  but  by  taking  blame." 

By  adherence  under  stress  of  trial  to  the  true  worship  of 
Jehovah  and  the  practice  of  4t  righteousness,"  which  is  the 
obligation  and  test  of  his  service  ;  and,  on  the  other  hand, 
by  an  observation  of  the  lives  and  fates  of  the  opposing 
party  in  church  and  state,  idolatry  or  mixed  worship  plus 
immorality  —  luxury,  greed,  sensuality,  cruelty  —  is  con- 
tinually made  more  odious  and  disreputable. 

$  989.  Some  of  the  accompanying  or  cooperant  external 
conditions  are:  1.  National  unification.  This  was  in  a 
measure  secured  by  the  kingdom.  Only  by  some  such 
assimilation  could  the  tribal  habits,  restricted  views  of 
obligation,  local  prejudices  and  antipathies,  arbitrary 
administration  of  justice,  be  to  any  considerable  degree 
done  away.  Terrible  evils  came  with  the  kingdom.  But 
by  it  the  necessary  antithesis  of  good  and  bad,  pure  and 
impure,  righteousness  and  injustice,  was  brought  to  self- 


Cir.  IV,  §  091     BUSINESS   TRAINING;   CLASS  FEELING  109 

consciousness  in  an  influential  party  loyal  to  Jehovah  and 
his  cause. 

§  990.  2.  Industrial  and  commercial  development. 
This  undoubtedly  fosters  the  greed  and  selfishness  of  the 
grasping  and  covetous.  On  the  other  hand,  no  commu- 
nity becomes  honest  and  veracious  unless  by  business  train- 
ing it  is  made  to  realize  as  a  people  the  advantages  of 
honesty  and  veracity,  and  the  evils  of  cheating  and  crook- 
edness in  matters  of  bargain  and  sale.  How  greatly 
such  convictions  were  needed  may  be  suggested  by  the 
business  habits  of  any  nomadic  or  semi-nomadic  com- 
munity in  the  East.  The  Hebrews  did  not  have  this  aid 
In  morality  in  full  measure  till  the  Babylonian  exile 
(§  1319  ff.).  A  concomitant  advantage  is  the  possession 
of  iixed  property,  which  develops  character  by  the  respon- 
sibility of  ownership  and  trusteeship,  and  steadies  the 
practical  purpose  and  endeavour  of  business  life. 

§  991.  3.  Social  changes,  resulting  in  the  creation  of 
privileged  classes  of  the  rich  and  powerful,  including 
Icings  and  nobles.  Everywhere,  but  especially  in  Oriental 
countries,  such  changes  develop  the  worst  passions  and 
instincts  of  human  nature — selfishness,  cruelty,  self-com- 
placent indifference  to  suffering  and  wrong.  These 
classes  also  adhered  to  and  patronized  the  forms  of  false 
and  mixed  worship  which  minister  to  lust  and  fashionable 
vices  and  pleasures.  On  the  other  hand,  the  plain-living 
votaries  of  Jehovah  had  their  numbers  chiefly  augmented 
from  the  ranks  of  the  poor  and  the  oppressed.  The  gulf 
between  the  two  classes  became  steadily  wider  and 
deeper.  The  true  nature,  the  essential  character,  of  the 
antithesis  became  better  appreciated.  Vague  and  abstract 
conceptions  of  the  relations  of  Jehovah  to  his  people  were 
replaced  by  a  concrete  realization  of  his  power  to  help,  to 
sustain,  to  uplift.  Blind  reliance  upon,  or  dread  of,  his 
power  was  mitigated  and  neutralized  by  the  consciousness 
of  his  love  and  grace.  The  prosperity  of  the  wicked. 
accompanied  as  it  was  by  hateful  and  injurious  conduct, 


110  A    CENTRAL    SHRINE;    MORAL   TEACHING       Book  IX 

was  now  less  envied.  Jehovah  put  gladness  into  the 
heart  of  his  followers  more  than  others  had  when  their 
corn  and  their  wine  increased  (Ps.  iv.  7). 

§  992.  4.  A  concentration  of  the  national  worship. 
The  essential  evil  of  the  local  sanctuaries  was  that  the 
"high  places"  were  infected  with  nature  worship  in  one 
or  more  degrading  forms  ;  and  that  such  associations, 
based  on  tradition  and  habit,  and  falling  in  with  natural 
inclination,  were  ineradicable.  In  northern  Israel  such  a 
centralizing  system  was  never  accomplished.  In  Judah  it 
was  favoured  by  many  circumstances,  and  when  secured  by 
a  reforming  monarch  the  prestige  of  the  central  sanctuary 
made  it  perpetual.  Thus,  in  spite  of  frequent  and  gross 
debasement  of  the  national  worship,  a  solidarity  of  senti- 
ment, a  communrtw  of  belief,  a  cooperation  in  policy  and 
action  were  promoted  which  were  essential  to  the  progress 
of  the  cause  of  righteousness. 

§  993.  5.  An  educative  system.  This  was  mainly  sup- 
plied by  the  genuine  prophets  of  Jehovah.  Ritual  and 
ceremony  were  needed  ;  and  in  Israel  they  were  not 
always  unspiritual.  But  the  priests  as  a  class  Avere 
incompetent  and  mechanical,  though  there  was  no  enmity 
between  the  two  orders,  and  the  priesthood  contributed 
signally  to  the  ranks  of  the  prophets,  as  well  as  to  the 
outward  reformation  of  the  state.  It  was  the  line  of  the 
prophets  that  received  and  kept  the  saving  truth  and 
"  passed  from  hand  to  hand  the  torch  of  life."  From  sim- 
ple and  rude  beginnings,  at  the  opening  of  Israel's  career 
as  a  nation,  they  maintained  the  one  essential  principle  of 
fidelity  to  Jehovah,  growing  steadily  in  inspiration, 
insight,  and  devotion.  Thus  they  became  the  light  of 
Israel  and  the  world.  But,  as  educators  of  their  people, 
they  secured  no  permanently  effective  agency  till  they 
created  a  literature  under  Amos  and  his  successors,  or, 
what  is  much  the  same  thing,  until  they  reached  intui- 
tions and  conceptions  of  God  and  duty  which  were  worthy 
of  permanent  record. 


Ch.  IV,  §  995  A   FAITHFUL    REMNANT  111 

§  994.  The  highest  and  most  spiritual  of  these  condi- 
tions were  slow  and  tardy  in  coming  into  play,  and  Israel's 
moral  progress  during  this  prophetic  period  may  be  very 
summarily  stated.  For  the  northern  kingdom,  besides  the 
indirect  testimony  of  J  E  (§  92G,  930),  the  principal  evi- 
dence comes  from  Amos  and  Hosea.  Of  the  nation  as  a 
whole,  no  favourable  judgment  can  be  formed.  But  for 
purposes  of  moral  history  discrimination  is  necessary. 
The  chief  obstacle  to  reformation  was  the  perpetuation  of 
the  local  shrines,  and  this  for  the  reason  that  the  rem- 
nant of  the  faithful  had  little  community  of  worship,  in 
spite  of  the  sacred  feasts,  the  new  moons  and  sabbaths, 
and  other  feast-days  (Hos.  ii.  11).  That  some  were  found 
true  we  learn  from  the  wonderful  though  obscure  per- 
sonality of  Hosea.  While,  like  Amos,  he  draws  prophet- 
wise  a  picture  wholly  dark  of  the  times  and  the  people, 
he  himself,  as  revealed  in  his  writings,  is  a  proof  of  the 
existence  of  a  small  but  intrepid  band  of  pure  and  loyal 
souls.  A  life  like  his,  Whose  very  breath  was  love  and 
faith,  demanded  spiritual  fellowship  for  its  nurture  and 
its  daily  sustenance.  That  his  followers  and  supporters 
were  a  very  small  company  we  can  scarcely  doubt. 
But  they  were  necessarily  a  power  as  well  as  a  witness 
for  righteousness,  even  in  the  evil  times  of  Samaria's 
downfall.  Nor  did  they  altogether  perish  with  the  going 
down  of  the  kingdom.  It  was  not  in  the  nature  of  such 
a  society  to  dissolve  and  cease,  even  with  the  extinction 
of  the  nation.  They  were  not  a  forlorn  hope,  losing  all 
for  which  they  fought  and  died.  They  were  rather  a 
hard-pressed  army  of  patriots  who  cut  their  way  through 
their  foes  to  join  their  allies  across  the  frontier,  whom 
they  reinforced  and  inspired  to  victory. 

§  995.  The  party  of  truth  and  righteousness  in  the 
kingdom  of  Judah  was  in  the  line  of  true  succession  to 
this  heroic,  prophetic  band.  It  was  in  the  very  centre 
of  the  moral  struggle  in  Jerusalem,  and  with  tin-  fall  of 
Samaria  in  view,  that  Isaiah  gathered   his  disciples  about 


112  THE    FOUNTAIN    OF   MORALITY  Book  IX 

him.  Far  from  the  riot  and  ribaldry  of  voluptuaries,  and 
the  taunts  of  frivolous  scepties,  and  the  intrigues  of  false 
and  seditious  politicians,  he  discoursed  to  them  of  the 
one  sure  foundation-stone  on  which  the  community  could 
rest  its  hopes,  of  the  "overwhelming  scourge"  which 
should  come  upon  those  who  had  made  lies  their  refuge 
and  hidden  themselves  under  falsehood,  of  the  hail-storm 
which  should  sweep  away  the  refuges  of  lies.  lie  declared 
that  everything  must  bide  the  test  of  the  measuring-line 
of  justice  and  the  plumb-line  of  righteousness,  and  that  a 
divine  ordinance,  fixed  and  inviolable,  determines  the 
application  of  the  rule  (Isa.  xxviii.  ;   cf.  viii.  6  ff.). 

§  996.    With  this  revelation  we  are  brought  close  to  the 
fountain  of  Old  Testament  morality.       We  see  running 
la  re  in  its  early  course  that   stream  of    ethical    thought 
and  sentiment  that  swells  and    broadens  to  all  eternity. 
Here  we  have  the  explanation  of  the  prophetic  life  and 
work,    the    key    to    the    history    of    prophecy    itself.      It 
is   not    Amos    and    Ilosea    and    Isaiah    and    Micah   and 
Habakkuk    and     Jeremiah,    alone,    but     they    and    their 
teachers,  and  their  disciples,  that  raised  the  walls  of  the 
spiritual  temple  upon   its  unseen,  immovable  foundation- 
stone.     Their  principles,  their  endurance,  their  successes 
and  defeats,  their  own  spiritual  progress,  give  unity  and 
consistency  as   well  as   motive   and   meaning    to   the    in- 
ner history  of  Israel.      We   think   of   the   profound    pro- 
phetic conceptions  in  the  Jehovistic  history  (§  931  ff.). 
We  do  not  forget  the  other  forces  that  wrought  for  the 
purification  of  the  state,  which  we  may  call  for  conven- 
ience the  reforming  priestly  party  and  the  reforming  court 
party,  and  of  these  we  must  take  serious  account  in  our 
st  udy  of  moral  progress  under  the  monarchy.     But  much  of 
their  inspiration  they  owed  to  the  genuine  prophetic  influ- 
ence, and.  being  essentially  official  and  professional,  they 
were  more  easily  reformed  from  without  than  from  within. 
§  !><)7.  To  trace  that  history  in  broadest  outline  up  and 
through  the  great  Reformation   is  now  a  comparatively 


C ii.  IV,  §  999         EARLY   LITERARY   PROPHETS  113 

simple  task.  Like  all  spiritual  processes  this,  the  most 
decisive  movement  of  the  ancient  world,  was  a  matter  of 
personal  experience.  Hence  the  outward  events  are  little 
known  and  of  little  direct  importance  until  the  conflict 
with  the  party  of  repression  and  moral  reaction  became 
public  and  national.  AVe  may  conveniently  make  four 
periods.  The  first  reaches  to  the  deliverance  of  Je- 
rusalem from  Sennacherib  ;  the  second  to  the  death  of 
Hezekiah  ;  the  third  to  the  accession  of  Josiah  ;  the 
fourth  through  the  Reformation  till  his  death. 

§  998.  In  the  first  period  we  observe  the  moral  arraign- 
ment of  the  civil  and  religious  evil-doers  brought  to  a 
climax  by  Isaiah  and  Micah.  The  excitement  caused  by 
the  denunciations  of  Micah  is  attested  by  their  being 
called  to  mind  at  a  critical  period  more  than  a  century 
later  (Jer.  xxvi.  17  ff.).  That  Isaiah  had  a  wider  out- 
look and  did  a  greater  work  is  partly  due  to  his  position 
in  the  capital,  and  to  his  skill  and  sagacity  in  keeping  in 
touch  with  the  leading  people  of  the  state,  and  at  length 
carrying  them  along  with  him  —  a  class  of  people  who 
would  have  been  alienated  by  the  indiscriminate  bitter- 
ness of  his  provincial  colleague.  The  most  obvious  out- 
ward mark  of  the  success  of  this  double  prophetic  vocation 
was  the  partial  reform  instituted  by  Hezekiah  (§  795  f.). 
A  more  permanent  result  was  the  increase  of  attachment 
to  Jerusalem  as  the  centre  of  national  hope  and  worship, 
due  on  the  one  hand  to  Isaiah's  doctrine  of  the  inviola- 
bility of  Zion,  and  on  the  other  to  the  dread  of  the  deso- 
lation predicted  by  Micah.  Still  more  potential  morally 
was  Isaiah's  conception  of  a  community  of  Jehovah's 
worshippers,  which  was  partly  realized  in  his  own 
little  circle,  and  which  kept  itself  intact  in  the  darkness 
of  the  following  generation.  Of  this  community  the 
lineal  successor  is  the  church  of  God,  and  its  Literary 
monument  is  the  Old  Testament. 

§  9(.*'.i.  With  all  the  strength  and  nobleness  of  the  ger- 
minal ideas  of  this  splendid  prophetic  era,  it  was  marked 


114  PROPHETIC   LIMITATIONS  Book  IX 

by  the  limitations  incident  to  its  stage  of  moral  develop- 
ment. It  is  the  gradual  emancipation  from  these  tram- 
mels that  distinguishes  the  comparative  spiritual  freedom 
attained  during  the  Exile.  First,  there  was  the  notion 
that  the  presence  of  Jehovah  and  the  benefits  of  worship 
were  confined  to  his  own  land  and  people  and  his  special 
seat.  This  conception  was  not  merely  a  necessity  in  the 
evolution  of  religious  thought,  but  it  was  also  a  saving- 
practical  doctrine,  as  it  served  to  discourage  the  abound- 
ing nature-worship  and  superstitions  of  the  local  shrines. 
From  the  point  of  view  of  religious  truth,  however,  it 
manifestly  tended  to  narrowness  of  view,  intolerance,  self- 
sufficiency,  and  formality. 

§  1000.  Second,  the  view  still  prevailed  that  Jehovah 
had  an  interest  in  the  people  as  a  whole  rather  than  in 
individuals.  Hence  the  responsibility  for  good  and  evil 
was  rather  national  than  personal.  It  is  true  that  the 
antithesis  between  the  righteous  and  the  wicked  was 
bound  ultimately  to  make  clear  the  principle  of  personal 
responsibility.  Indeed,  the  fundamental  doctrine  of  proph- 
ecy, that  sin  is  a  defiance  of  the  will  of  Jehovah  and 
goodness  a  compliance  with  Ins  will,  implied  freedom  of 
choice  on  the  part  of  the  individual.  But  these  Hebrew 
seers  were  not  logicians  or  psychologists.  They  con- 
cerned themselves  more  with  the  effect  and  issue  of  sin 
than  with  its  cause  and  origin,  and  it  was  a  work  of  time 
for  them  to  break  entirely  with  the  traditional  conception 
of  men  as  having  a  corporate  rather  than  a  personal  exist- 
ence. Hence  the  sinner  was  one  of  the  community,  a  class 
of  "  sinners "  ;  and  the  righteous  man  in  the  same  way 
was  one  of  the  community  of  the  "righteous"  or  the 
"pious."  So  persistent  was  the  inherited  tribalistic 
notion  (§  397)  that  a  single  life  resided  in  the  clan  and 
was  shared  by  its  members,  whose  patron  god  was  at  the 
same  time  its  ultimate  ancestor  or  life-giver.  The  power 
of  this  inwrought  idea  could  only  be  broken  when  a  sense 
of  moral  obligation  was  awakened  in  such  men  as  Jere- 


Ch.  IV,  §  1003  DEFECTS   AND   OBSTACLES  115 

miah  and  his  pupils.  But  at  this  stage,  when  the  party 
of  Jehovah  or  of  righteousness  was  formed,  the  antithesis 
was  still  felt  to  be  between  two  communities  and  not 
between  two  associations  of  individuals. 

§  1001.  A  third  limitation  was  the  lack  of  proportion 
and  consistency  in  the  prophetic  estimate  of  virtues  or 
moral  qualities.  What  affected  the  claims  of  Jehovah 
and  what  touched  the  life  of  the  community  was  of  cardi- 
nal importance.  Hence  to  those  prophets  the  great  trans- 
gression was  the  mixed  or  hypocritical  or  merely  formal 
worship  of  Jehovah;  and  next  to  it  in  impiety  was  the 
oppression  or  robbery  of  Jehovah's  wards,  the  poor  and 
humble.  Thus  is  to  be  explained  the  fact  that  the  most 
obnoxious  sets  of  people  were  the  rich  (§  598)  and  the 
priests.  What  we  miss  the  most  is  the  virtue  of  charity 
and  tolerance  and  a  regard  for  man  as  man.  The  perse- 
cuting and  vindictive  spirit  and  the  threats  of  destruction 
were  not  due,  however,  to  odium  theologimm,  but  to  the 
higher  motive  of  indignation  for  wrong  perpetrated 
against  Jehovah  and  his  suffering  people. 

§  1002.  The  preservation  of  Jerusalem  from  the  armies 
of  Sinacherib  (see  §  704  ff.)  introduced  a  second  period, 
which  was,  however,  very  brief,  as  it  lasted  only  till  the 
death  of  Hezekiah.  It  was  marked  by  an  increased  regard 
for  the  prophetic  word  on  the  part  of  king  and  people, 
as  well  as  more  earnest  efforts  to  put  down  the  Canaanitish 
modes  of  worship  with  their  Babylonish  accompaniments, 
which  had  been  fostered  by  Ahaz.  The  disturbed  con- 
dition of  the  country  (§  791)  must  have  greatly  obstructed 
the  moral  and  spiritual  progress  which  the  prophetic  party 
had  hoped  for.  It  is  impossible,  however,  to  get  definite 
information  as  to  this  obscure  period  generally,  or  even  to 
infer  anything  from  subsequent  conditions. 

§  1003.  Nor  can  we  learn  anything  at  first  hand  of 
the  devoted  followers  of  Jehovah  during  the  third  period, 
the  cruel  times  of  King  Manasseh.  But  we  know  that 
this  was    a    time    of    intense    occupation   with    the    ideas 


110  REACTION   UNDER   MANASSEH  Book  IX 

and  aims  of  the  faithful  community.  Only  so  can  we 
explain  the  strength  of  the  reforming  movement  under 
Josiah,  and,  what  is  more  significant  still,  the  ethical 
wisdom  and  depth  of  the  book  of  Deuteronomy.  Thus 
the  fourth  period  (that  of  Josiah's  regime)  from  the 
point  of  view  of  moral  and  religious  development,  really 
forms  one  great  epoch  along  with  the  third,  from  which 
it  differs  so  greatly  in  all  external  features.  In  the  later 
time  we  see  the  embodiment  of  the  ideas  of  the  earlier, 
the  execution  of  its  plans,  and  the  fulfilment  of  its  hopes. 

§  1004.  We  have  here  a  rare  opportunity  to  balance 
the  opposing  claims  of  the  two  communities  thus  engaged 
in  a  struggle  upon  whose  outcome  depended  the  fate  of 
the  world.  Nowhere  else  were  the  true  character  and 
tendency  of  the  forces  arrayed  against  prophetism  so 
clearly  displayed.  Just  as  signally  revealed  were  the 
aims  and  methods  of  the  party  of  progress  and  reform. 
Moreover,  the  issue  of  the  conflict  was  then  virtually 
determined,  or  at  least  conditioned,  since  it  was  at  this 
stage  that  a  movement  was  made  all  along  the  line 
through  which  at  last  the  conquered  part)-  became  the 
conqueror.  Hence  the  very  situation  challenges  our 
inquiry  into  the  merits  of  the  contest.  We  ought  to  dis- 
cover what  was  saving  and  permanent  in  the  contentions 
and  principles  of  the  party  of  progress  and  reform. 

§  1005.  There  were  two  outstanding  features  in  the 
religious  policy  of  Manasseh  and  his  ministers.  First, 
lie  made  a  systematic  effort  to  repeal  the  reforming 
measures  of  Hezekiah,  and  to  substitute  for  his  plain, 
unsymbolizing  worship  of  Jehovah  a  more  imposing  cult, 
which  should  enthrall  the  multitude  and  extinguish  reli- 
gious puritanism.  Second,  he  took  active  measures  against 
the  reforming  party,  which  culminated  in  persecution  to 
the  death.  The  situation  is  obviously  similar  to  that 
of  the  reign  of  Ahaz,  and  also  reminds  us  in  several 
respects  of  the  religious  strife  of  t lie  days  of  Ahab  and 
Elijah.     In  both  cases   the  adoration  of   strange  deities 


Ch.  IV,  §  1006        SINCERITY   OF   THE   DEVOTEES  117 

was  superadded  to  the  symbolical  image-worship  of 
Jehovah  and  to  the  old  Canaanitish  demonology.  As 
Ahab  had  been  led  by  the  prestige  of  the  Tyrian  alliance 
to  enter  upon  the  service  of  the  Phoenician  Baal,  so  the 
glamour  of  the  victorious  gods  of  his  suzerain  impelled 
Manasseh  to  the  erection  of  shrines  for  the  celestial 
pantheon  of  the  Assyrians  (§  856).  Under  both  Ahab 
and  Manasseh  violence  was  resorted  to  for  the  suppres- 
sion of  the  pure  religion  of  Jehovah.  The  parallel  is 
made  more  striking  still  by  the  sequel  of  both  adminis- 
trations. When  Jehu  and  Josiah  came  to  power,  they 
alike  retaliated  in  kind  against  the  votaries  of  the  alien 
worship.  Still  more  striking  than  these  parallels  is  the 
contrast  shown  in  the  fact  that  while  the  forms  of  wor- 
ship promoted  by  Manasseh  showed  little  or  no  moral 
advance  over  those  favoured  by  Ahab,  the  type  of  reli- 
gion and  morals  exhibited  in  Deuteronomy  is  far  higher 
than  that  exemplified  or  tolerated  by  Elijah,  Elisha,  and 
Jehu. 

§  1006.  One  moral  distinction,  however,  must  be 
granted  to  the  religious  practices  of  the  time  of  Manas- 
seh. I  mean  their  intense  earnestness  and  profound  sin- 
cerity. The  variety  of  cult  and  ritual  which  they 
exhibited,  far  from  being  an  indication  of  spiritual  fri- 
volity, was  rather  a  proof  that  every  possible  effort  was 
made  to  conciliate  the  native  deities  of  Canaan  and  the 
powerful  gods  of  Assyria  and  Babylonia.  The  pathetic 
appeals  for  light  on  the  dark  and  urgent  problems  of 
worship  and  sacrifice,  which  in  Mic.  vi.  6-8  are  put  into 
the  mouth  of  a  pious  contemporary,  show  that  even  a 
votary  of  Jehovah  could  lie  tempted  to  offer  to  Him  that 
form  of  oblation  which  was  most  horrible,  and  at  the  same 
time  most  fascinating,  in  the  heat  lien  rites  of  his  time  and 
people.  To  offer  up  one's  own  offspring  to  Molech  was 
the  acme  of  Canaanitish  self-devotion,  and  that  Israelites 
could  bring  themselves  to  it  shows  a  religious  desperation 
that  could  only  be  quelled  by  revolution. 


118  CONFLICT   DOCTRINE    AND    DOGMA  Book  IX 

§  1007.  The  ethical  character  of  the  prophetic  religion 
was  promoted  by  the  antagonism  which  sprang  up  on  this 
crucial  question  and  other  practical  issues  in  the  religious 
life  of  the  nation.  The  revolting  cruelty  of  the  deity 
who  could  require  such  sacrifices  could  be  easily  learned 
by  all  except  misguided  fanatics.  A  recoil  was  inevitable 
in  favour  of  Him  who  proclaimed  to  men  baffled  and  dis- 
heartened by  the  tyrannical  claims  of  rival  ceremonial 
systems  :  "  What  doth  Jehovah  require  of  thee  but  to  do 
justice  and  to  love  mercy  and  to  walk  humbly  with  thy 
God?  "  True,  the  yoke  of  bondage  to  rites  and  cere- 
monies could  not  be  thrown  off,  and  indeed  it  soon  had  to 
be  tightened  in  the  interest  of  that  very  religion  to  which 
it  was  essentially  alien.  The  prophetic  note,  as  often 
afterwards,  sounded  far  above  the  practical  reason  of 
those  who  were  charged  with  the  offices  of  religion. 

§  1008.  But  the  ruling  classes  and  the  majority  of  the 
people,  both  in  and  outside  of  Jerusalem,  continued  to 
follow  an  organized  system  of  heathen  and  half-heathen 
worship,  of  which  the  most  repulsive  of  practices  were 
a  customary  adjunct.  Hence  to  the  faithful  minority 
everything  in  the  popular  religion  which  detracted  from 
purity  of  thought  and  worship  became  more  repugnant, 
along  with  everything  in  practical  life  not  in  accord  with 
justice,  mercy,  and  submission  to  the  will  of  Jehovah. 
The  effect  on  belief  or  doctrine  was  necessarily  intense 
and  lasting.  Never  is  feeling  so  quickly  crystallized  into 
an  article  of  faith  as  in  times  of  religious  hardship  and 
conflict.  To  speak  of  dogma  in  the  modern  metaphysi- 
cal sense  as  an  expression  of  the  Old  Testament  spirit 
would  be,  it  is  true,  an  impertinence  almost  amounting 
to  blasphemy.  The  prophetic  word,  the  basis  of  all 
pre-Christian  teaching,  was  not  logical  or  philosophic 
statement,  but  a  revelation  of  concrete  facts  as  to  the 
nature  of  Jehovah  and  the  duty  of  men.  And  such  a 
communication  of  new  truth  had  not  only  an  outward 
form  but   also  an  inner  history  that  was  human  and  per- 


Cii.  IV,  §  1009  HOLINESS   OF   JEHOVAH  119 

sonal.  The  truth  itself,  as  far  as  known,  was  the  resultant 
of  manifold  forces,  social  and  individual,  working  under 
the  impulse  and  direction  of  the  inscrutable  divine  spirit 
in  the  souls  of  those  through  whom  the  message  came. 
All  teaching  was  at  once  spontaneous,  subjective,  and  con- 
crete, based  in  its  substance  and  expression  upon  the 
experience  and  aspirations  of  men  who  had  the  gifts  of 
feeling,  seeing,  and  speaking.  Hence  abstract  dogmatic 
statement  was  inconceivable  and  unimaginable,  apart  from 
the  fact  that  the  language  was  incapable  of  being  used 
for  the  purpose.1  Yet  doctrines  and  principles  may  exist 
without  and  before  dogmas  and  maxims,  and  faith  without 
and  before  either.2  These  doctrines  and  principles  were 
propounded  and  practised  in  those  days  of  storm  and 
stress  with  a  conviction  and  energy  of  which  philosophiz- 
ing and  critical  peoples  and  times  can  have  no  conception. 
§  1009.  Such  a  doctrine  was  the  holiness  of  Jehovah. 
His  sanctity  had  been  always  admitted.  But  it  was  a  new 
experience  to  preach  and  believe  that  He  was  both  righteous 
in  action  and  essentially  pure  in  character.  The  name 
of  Jehovah  came  to  include  holiness  in  this  twofold  aspect ; 
and  as  the  word  (or)  implies,  it  was  his  "  mark  "  ■ —  that 
by  which  He  was  known.  The  foregoing  observations 
have  led  up  to  the  conclusion  that  such  a  knowledge  of 
Jehovah  was,  in  part  at  least,  the  outcome  of  moral 
and  religious  antagonisms.  The  effect  of  such  a  belief 
upon  the  character  of  the  believer  was  regenerative.  The 
conception  worked  by  reflex  influence.      To  adapt  the  old 

1  Even  such  familiar  New  Testament  expressions  as  "  God  is  Light,'' 
"  God  is  Love,"  are  foreign  to  Hebrew  conception  and  linguistic  usage. 
1 1  is  scarcely  necessary  to  remind  the  reader  that  the  most  abstract  of  the 
doctrines  of  Jesus  are  given  in  concrete  form  ;  for  example :  --lam  the 
Way.  the  Truth,  and  the  Life." 

2  "Faith"  is  never  mentioned  in  the  "hi  Testament,  though  it  is  there 
throughout  in  the  form  of  "trust."  Such  is  the  faith  that  is  even 
ascribed  to  Abraham  (§  962),  who  had  neither  doctrines  nor  principles. 
And  the  Roman  centurion,  who  showed  greater  faith  than  any  in  Israel 
(Luke  vii.  9),  had  principles  and  no  doctrines. 


120  SPIRITUAL    [NDIVIDUALITY  Book  IX 

saying:  us  a  man's  God  is,  so  must  he  himself  be.  But 
the  converse  also  holds  :  what  a  man  is,  that  his  God  must 
also  be.  God,  however,  is  an  ideal,  and  man,  essentially 
a  mere  animal,  but  with  head  aloft  and  gazing  into  heaven,1 
normally  aspires  towards  that  ideal,  lie  can  never  become 
as  great  and  good  as  his  visions.  Yet  it  is  only  by  strain- 
ing that  he  rises  at  all.  It  is  the  pure  in  heart  who  see 
God  (Matt.  v.  8)  and  "he  that  hath  this  hope  in  him 
purifieth  himself  even  as  He  is  pure  "  (1  John  iii.  8 ;  cf . 
§  994). 

§  1010.  Observe  also  how  this  clarified  notion  of  Jeho- 
vah's character  tended  to  develop  moral  individuality 
(cf.  §  1000).  The  knowledge  of  his  holiness  could  come 
through  personal  experience  alone.  Whatever  else  was 
a  matter  of  traditional  belief  —  his  faithfulness  to  Israel, 
his  swiftness  to  punish  his  own  and  his  people's  enemies, 
his  readiness  to  accept  a  sacrifice  —  this  vitalizing  concep- 
tion at  least  was  a  matter  of  conviction,  and  could  be 
certified  to  the  individual  soul  alone.  All  that  it  implied 
and  all  that  it  brought  with  it  served  to  confirm  and 
deepen  a  personal  relation  with  Jehovah. 

§  1011.  The  most  potent  consequence  was  a  new  idea 
of  sinfulness  and  the  results  of  forgiveness.  Upon  this 
I  need  not  here  enlarge.  What  is  of  importance,  how- 
ever, is  to  see  how  the  condition  of  the  feeble  and  strug- 
gling minority  loyal  to  Jehovah  favoured  these  spiritualiz- 
ing ideas.  Necessarily  its  members  were  excluded  from 
the  services  of  the  sanctuary  (cf.  §  (109).  How  such  a 
privation  tended  to  refine  and  ennoble  the  believer  is 
shown  in  one  of  the  most  beautiful  and  artistically  perfect 
of  sacred  poems  (Ps.  xlii.,  xliii ).  Spirituality  always 
costs,  and  it  was  a  heavy  price  that  was  paid  for  the  bless- 
ing. But  the  gain  was  worth  more  than  all  that  was 
suffered.     Precious  above   everything   else  was  the    dis- 

1  According  to  the  well-known  line  of  Ovid  :  "  Os  homini  sublime  dedit 
caelumque  tueri,"  Met.  i,  85. 


Ch.  IV,  §  1013        THE   COMPROMISE    IX    REFORM  121 

covery  anticipated  by  earlier  prophets  (Amos  v.  21  ff., 
Hos.  vi.  6,  Isa.  i.  11  ff.,  et  «/.),  but  now  for  the  first  time 
verified  by  a  community  of  separate  worshippers,  that 
after  all  a  sanctuary  and  its  propitiatory  sacrifices  were 
not  necessary  for  the  essential  exercises  of  religion  or  for 
pardon  and  peace  with  God.  None  the  less  did  they 
yearn  for  the  renewal  of  those  outward  communications 
with  Jehovah  which  Old  Testament  saints  always  regarded 
as  channels  of  grace  and  help.  And  perhaps  they  them- 
selves scarcely  realized  that  greater  blessings  came  through 
the  discipline  of  loss  and  separation  than  through  the 
enjoyment  of  the  unbroken  privileges  of  the  sanctuary. 

§  1012.  Thus  the  national  and  official  degeneracy  of 
the  period  of  Manasseh  reacted  according  to  sure  moral 
laws  upon  the  chosen  spirits  from  whom  came  the  words 
and  the  deeds  that  were  to  save  Israel  and  the  world. 
Practically  the  effect  was  seen  most  clearly  in  the  period  of 
Josiah  and  Deuteronomy.  But  the  reaction  of  unfettered 
freedom  did  something  more  and  something  less  than 
fulfil  the  moral  promise  of  the  years  of  repression  and 
discipline.  It  invaded  the  spiritual  sphere  proper  to 
prophetic  thought  and  activity,  and  it  fell  below  the  pro- 
phetic ideal  in  laying  excessive  emphasis  upon  law  and 
ritual.  The  compromise  was,  however,  inevitable.  The 
drafting  of  the  reforming  principles  and  methods  came 
into  the  hands  of  professionals,  and  the  carrying  out 
of  the  reforms  into  the  hands  of  politicians.  On  the 
whole  they  did  better  for  their  time  than  the  prophets 
alone  would  have  done  in  their  place,  for  practical  men 
"are  wiser  for  their  own  generation  "  than  idealists,  and 
are  saved  .by  a  marvellous  instinct  from  apprehending 
more  of  new  and  saving  ideas  than  they  themselves  arc 
able  or  willing  to  put  into  practice. 

§  1013.  It  will  be  remembered  that  the  reform  of  Josiah 
was  conducted  under  the  auspices  of  the  priests.  Their 
interest  in  the  matter  requires  that  a.  few  words  should 
be  said  of  the  part  played  by  them  in  the  moral  and  reli- 


122  PRE-PROPHETIC  PRIESTHOOD  Book  IX 

gious  education  of  Israel,1  especially  that  it  may  be  seen 
whether  or  not  it  was  purely  formal.  This  vital  point 
may  be  decided  by  observing  the  tendency  of  their  official 
work  to  affect  the  character  of  their  clients. 

§  1014.  To  begin  with,  the  primitive  man  felt  that  he 
vas  completely  under  the  power  of  his  God  or  gods.  It 
was  this  power  that  gave  him  thriving  cattle  or  fertile 
fields  or  a  prosperous  family,  or,  perad venture,  scattered 
his  flocks,  1  (lighted  his  grain,  or  sickened  or  slew  his  chil- 
dren. But  such  curses  or  blessings  might  be  arbitrary 
and  inevitable.  It  was  a  decisive  advance  when  a  causal 
and  necessary  connection  between  them  and  the  character 
of  the  individual  was  established  ;  in  other  words,  when 
some  sense  of  moral  responsibility  was  created  in  his 
mind.  Here  the  institution  of  propitiatory  sacrifice 
played  a  preliminary  and  auxiliary  but  most  important 
part.  The  matter  of  first  consequence  always  was  that 
the  deity  should  be  conciliated.  Even  when  national 
issues  were  hanging  in  the  balance,  he  might  not  always 
intervene,  for  he  might  be  indifferent  or  angered  toward 
the  people.  The  business  of  the  priests  was  to  secure 
his  continual  interest  and  favour.  At  first  the}'  inter- 
ceded or  sacrificed  for  the  community,  then  for  its  repre- 
sentative, above  all  the  chief  or  king,  then  for  individuals 
in  proportion  to  their  prominence  or  the  value  of  the 
offerings  presented  at  the  shrine.  Individuals  also  might 
present  their  supplications  or  their  piacula,  the  fruits  of 
the  field  or  the  firstlings  of  the  flock.  But  this  they  did 
in  connection  with  sacred  places  and,  if  possible,  through 
sacred  j;>ersons. 

§  1015.  In  the  Hebrew  community,  even  before  the 
rise  of  prophecy,  the  conditions  were  peculiarly  favour- 
able to  the  development  of  an  individualistic  or  spiritual 
idea  of  religion  in  connection  with  ceremonial  worship. 
First,  there  was  the  prime  advantage  that  in  Israel  after 

1  Supplementing  what  has  been  noted  of  their  judicial  work  in  §  488  ff.  ■ 


Ch.  IV,  §1016       PRIESTS   AS   JUDGES   AND   ORACLES  123 

the  time  of  Moses  there  was  very  seldom  a  multiplicity  of 
coordinate  deities  to  distract  the  worshipper  or  to  weaken 
the  religious  sentiment.  What  was  most  seductive  was 
the  degradation  of  the  worship  of  Jehovah  by  a  sensuous 
symbolism,  and  the  survival  or  revival  of  ancient  popular 
superstitions.  The  purification  of  the  worship  of  Jehovah 
was,  therefore,  of  itself  a  distinct  gain  for  the  religious 
consciousness  of  the  nation.  Secondly,  there  was  the  fact 
that  the  priests,  the  active  and  moving  religious  force  of 
the  community,  the  mediators  between  Jehovah  and  the 
people,  were  also  counsellors  and  mentors  in  the  place  of 
God  (Ex.  xxii.  7  f.;  Deut.  xxxiii.  9  f.)  as  givers  of 
oracles  and  decisions  in  matters  of  dispute.  They  thus 
associated  the  life  and  conduct  of  their  suppliants  with 
their  religious  services  (§  488  f.).  So  essential  was 
"direction"  or  "judgment"  to  the  priesthood  that  the 
very  last  of  the  Old  Testament  prophets,  while  indulging 
in  a  pathetic  reminiscence  of  the  lost  ideal,  gives  an  ex- 
haustive definition  of  this  most  spiritual  of  the  priestly 
functions  as  follows  :  "  Trustworthy  direction  was  in  his 
mouth,  and  unrighteousness  was  not  found  in  his  lips  :  in 
innocence  and  in  uprightness  he  walked  with  me,  and 
many  did  he  turn  away  from  iniquity.  For  the  lips  of  a 
priest  should  guard  right  knowledge,  and  men  should  seek 
direction  at  his  mouth,  for  a  messenger  of  Jehovah  of 
Hosts  is  he"   (.Mai.  ii.  6  f.). 

§  1010.  But  in  the  very  nature  of  things  such  offices 
could  not  be  a  permanent  attribute  of  the  priesthood. 
They  could  in  truth  only  be  duly  fulfilled  in  an  element- 
ary stage  of  society.  Partly  on  account  of  their  abuse, 
(cf.  §  490)  and  partly  on  account  of  the  gradual  and  per- 
manent restriction  of  the  priests  to  intercessory  and  sac- 
rificial work,  their  judicial  and  oracular  functions  fell  into 
abeyance  and  were  taken  over  by  the  prophets,  or  in  more 
businesslike  fashion  by  the  local  elders  (§  486).  It  is 
impossible  to  say  how  far  the  public  or  the  individual  con- 
science was  affected  by  this  ministry  of  the  priests.     Prob- 


]-2i  PRIESTLY    MORAL    INFLUENCE  Book  IX 

ably  their   influence    for   good  was   mainly  conservative, 

preventing'  a  relapse  of  the  unstable  society  of  the  times 
into  social  anarchy  and  strife,  depredations  and  reprisals. 
Vet  we  may  be  sure  that  their  work  was  of  positive  bene- 
fit in  two  directions.  When  honest  and  faithful,  they 
encouraged  a  spirit  of  justice  and  toleration  among  their 
clients.  What  was  perhaps  of  more  potential  value,  they, 
in  their  own  persons,  familiarized  the  people  with  the 
fundamental  principle  that  their  common  life  was  reli- 
gious throughout,  and  consisted  of  something  more  than 
religious  service  ;  that  their  ordinary  duties  had  a  reli- 
gious sanction  ;  that  their  obligations  rested  upon  the 
behest  of  a  supernatural  power,  who  was  also  the  head  of 
the  whole  community.  The  consciousness  or  subconscious- 
ness of  this  relation  to  supernatural  powers  gave  of  itself 
no  ethical  quality  to  an  action,  but  it  furnished  a  basis 
upon  which  the  prophets  raised  the  structure  of  spiritual 
morality,  thus  taking  up  the  higher  work  which  an  official 
priesthood  was  incompetent  either  to  apprehend  or  to 
achieve. 

§  1017.  Thus  neither  the  work  nor  the  word  of  the 
priests,  as  far  as  it  was  official  and  professional,  could  aid 
directly  in  the  moral  and  spiritual  elevation  of  the  indi- 
vidual, since  it  did  not  operate  in  the  realm  of  conscience. 
But  their  indirect  influence  for  good  upon  individual  life 
was  immeasurable.  Not  only,  as  we  have  seen,  did  they 
keep  Jehovah  before  the  mind  of  Israel  in  the  twilight  of 
its  reason  and  faith,  but  the  larger  ministry  into  which 
they  grew  with  the  increasing  complexity  of  both  religious 
and  civil  life  made  provision  for  ever  enlarging  and  real 
needs  of  worship  and  ritual.  Ceremonial  religion  could 
not,  it  is  true,  renew  the  individual  heart  and  life;  its 
abuse  could  and  did  induce  in  the  worshippers  arrogance, 
hypocrisy,  and  the  exclusion  of  God  himself  by  means 
of  the  very  symbols  of  his  presence ;  the  unfaithful- 
ness, venality,  and  sensuality  of  many  of  its  ministers 
drew  upon  them  bitter  and  persistent  prophetic  denuncia- 


Ch.  IV,  §  1018       UNKNOWN   WORKERS   AND   WRITERS  125 

tions  *  (e.g.  Am.  ii.  8  ;  Hos.  v.  1  ff.  ;  Mic.  iii.  11).  Yet 
this  very  priestly  guild,  when  in  harmony  with  the  true 
prophets,  wrought  salvation  in  Israel  in  critical  times, 
instigated  all  the  reforms  in  worship,  collected  and 
guarded  both  the  civil  and  ceremonial  law  of  the  nation, 
preserved  the  continuity  of  religious  thought  and  knowl- 
edge in  the  long  dark  ages  of  Israel's  history,  and  edited 
large  and  indispensable  sections  of  the  Old  Testament. 

§  1018.  When  we  see  how  little  the  literary  prophets 
of  the  time  had  to  do  with  the  so-called  "  legislation  "  as 
given  in  Deuteronomy,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  keep  in 
mind  those  who  wrere  in  most  sympathy  with  its  special 
enactments,  we  gain  an  insight  into  the  conditions  of 
moral  and  religious  progress  that  is  quite  invaluable. 
We  are  apt  to  suppose  that  it  was  the  great  prophets  and 
well-known  guides  of  the  people  who  had  most  to  do  with 
epoch-making  moral  and  religious  movements  that  have 
left  their  mark  in  the  literature  of  the  Old  Testament. 
The  present  instance  shows  plainly  that  this  was  not  nec- 
essarily the  case.  It  indicates  besides  that  a  great  deal 
of  the  work  which  lay  behind  the  moral,  ceremonial,  and 
civil  law  of  the  Hebrews  was  done  by  obscure  priests  and 
by  disciples  of  the  prophetic  school  (§  937)  in  periods  of 
history  which  we  usually  regard  as  religiously  dead  and 
unproductive.  The  growth  of  Deuteronomy,  not  merely 
as  a  literary,  but  as  a  moral  and  religious  achievement, 
is  proof  of  this.  We  know  who  the  men  were  that  were 
concerned  in  bringing  this  book  to  light  and  in  securing 
its  practical  validity.  We  have  no  record  of  the  epoch- 
making  men  who  were  concerned  in  its  production. 

1  In  degenerate  times  false  prophets  Leagued  themselves  with  recreant 
priests,  a  combination  which  virtually  included  tin'  professionals  of  both 
orders.    It  was  then  that  the  true  prophets  were  most  outspoken  against 

botli.  The  dark  picture  is  completed  by  Jer.  v.  31,  vi.  13,  viii.  10, 
xxiii.  11,  :)4  ;  Zeph.  iii.  i;  Ezek.  xxii.  26.     Cf.  S  l<»0(i. 


CHAPTER   V 

THE    REFORMATION    IN    EFFECT 

§  1019.  Of  the  details  of  the  work  of  reformation  we 
are  not  informed  beyond  the  overturning  of  the  abuses  in 
worship  already  noted  (§  854  ff.).  There  can  be  little 
doubt  that  uniformity  of  religious  service  was  secured 
during  the  rest  of  the  life  of  Josiah,  that  the  high-places 
were  dismantled,  that  the  idols  disappeared  from  view, 
and  that  resort  to  the  central  sanctuary  at  the  stated 
feasts  was  general  and  regular.  Jerusalem  itself  was 
thoroughly  cleared  of  ceremonial  and  moral  impurities, 
and  the  ritual  worship  of  Jehovah  gained  a  dignity 
and  prestige  which  it  never  wholly  lost.  Among  the 
various  adjustments  of  the  new  system  special  difficulty 
must  have  been  felt  in  settling  the  cases  of  the  deposed 
guardians  of  the  loeal  shrines.  The  provision  whereby 
the  priests  were  brought  to  Jerusalem  and  maintained 
there  (2  K.  xxiii.  8  f . )  must  have  been,  if  persistently 
carried  out,  a  heavy  burden  on  the  sacred  revenues,  as 
well  as  socially  injurious.  Equal  difficulty  must  also 
have  attended  the  organization  and  settlement  of  the 
whole  body  of  the  Levites  at  Jerusalem  (Deut.  xviii. 
1  IT.  ).  Practical  obstacles  must  indeed  have  rendered 
this  special  legislation  to  a  great  degree  ineffective. 

§  1020.  The  new  programme  had  a  fair  trial.  It  was 
maintained  for  twelve  years,  and  during  that  time  it  had 
behind  it  the  official  force  of  the  kingdom,  with  the  king's 
authority  and  active  support.      A  fair  measure  of  success 

126 


Ch.  V,  §  1021  DIFFICULTIES   OF   REFORM  127 

attended  it  as  far  as  it  interfered  with  established  usages 
which  were  the  vehicle  and  support  of  the  popular  reli- 
gion. But  the  enforcement  of  the  ethical  provisions  of 
the  "'book  of  direction"  was  a  task  beyond  legislation  and 
its  executive  processes.  The  evils  were  inveterate  and 
virulent  ;  native  to  the  soil  (§  405);  the  long  habit  of  the 
nation  ;  bound  up  with  the  practice  of  the  great  world, 
Hebrew  and  Gentile,  outside  the  coterie  of  prophets  and 
priests  in  Jerusalem,  whose  zeal  must  have  been  regarded 
by  many  as  an  outburst  of  intolerance,  and  by  many  more 
as  a  tumult  of  Utopian  folly.  It  was  easier  to  break  down 
an  altar  than  to  set  free  a  family  enslaved  for  a  petty  debt ; 
to  dismiss  an  idolatrous  priest  than  to  bring  down  from 
his  place  of  power  and  pride  a  grandee  grown  rich  by 
oppression  and  usury,  or  a  judge  in  league  with  him 
through  bribery  and  perjury  (Mie.  vii.  2  f.). 

§  1021.  There  were  insuperable  difficulties  in  the  very 
nature  of  the  case.  First,  there  was  an  inner  contradiction 
between  the  principles  of  the  reform  and  its  methods.  Its 
moral  groundwork,  and  its  pleas  for  repentance,  trust, 
and  submission  of  the  heart  and  life,  were  inconsistent 
with  the  notion  of  physical  compulsion.  The  due  effect 
of  the  appeals  to  the  spiritual  nature  of  the  people  was  to 
create  an  ideal  of  religious  service  which  must  have  been 
impaired  by  the  drastic  measures  adopted  to  secure  an 
external  reformation.  Thus  was  presented,  as  in  the  book 
of  Deuteronomy  itself,  so  in  the  system  of  conformity 
and  uniformity  which  it  prescribed,  that  practical  antithe- 
sis between  prophetic  ideals  and  administrative  necessi- 
ties (cf.  §  1012),  and  the  far  more  profound  antithesis 
between  zeal  for  truth  and  zeal  for  a  system,  which  have 
both  sustained  and  marred  the  historic  churches  of  Juda- 
ism and  Christendom.  Accordingly,  while  the  ideal  of 
Deuteronomy  was  to  be  at  some  time  realized  in  the  world, 
it  was  impossible  to  accomplish  by  force  what  could  be 
effected  only  by  moral  influence  and  by  the  slow  induce- 
ments of  Providence  within  the  sotds  of  men. 


128  THE    ANTITHESES   OF    REFORM  Book  IX 

§  1022.  Again,  a  fundamental  and  necessary  defect  of 
the  movement  lay  in  the  fact  that  while  Deuteronomy 
and  its  crusade  appealed  to  Israel  as  a  whole  and  as  a  cor- 
porate entity,  its  arguments  and  exhortations  could  prop- 
erly affect  only  the  individual  heart  and  life.  And  yet, 
on  the  other  hand.  Deuteronomy  had  to  hold  fast  to  the 
idea  of  the  solidarity  of  the  community,  not  merely  be- 
cause it  was  a  traditional  conception,  but  because  nearly 
all  the  pleas  for  a  more  spiritual  religion  and  a  nobler 
mode  of  life  were  based  upon  it.  It  was  upon  the  ground 
of  the  common  relation  to  Jehovah  that  the  unity  of  the 
nation  was  felt  and  recognized,  and  it  was  upon  the  same 
ground  that  a  common  worship  and  loyal  obedience  were 
claimed  for  Him,  and  that  help  for  the  poor  and  unfortu- 
nate, and  redress  of  all  the  wrongs  within  the  community, 
were  made  a  matter  not  merely  of  sentiment  but  of  practi- 
cal legislation.  Thus  this  dominant  conception  was  at 
once  the  strength  and  the  weakness  of  the  reforming- 
cause. 

§  1023.  But  it  is  easy  to  make  a  radical  mistake  in 
summing  up  the  effect  of  the  Reformation  and  of  the 
manual  of  reform  which  an  eminent  critic  has  adjudged  to 
be  "perhaps  the  most  influential  and  far-reaching  book 
that  was  ever  written."1  We  must  not  suppose  that  the 
whole  matter  is  settled  by  saying  that  on  the  one  side 
there  were  mere  external  regulations  that  rested  jon  force, 
and  on  the  other  a  proclamation  of  principles  that  ap- 
pealed to  the  heart  and  conscience.  It  is  not  to  be 
assumed  that  ritual  was  wholly  an  outward  thing.  We 
must,  in  the  first  place,  distinguish  according  to  their 
nature  and  history  between  the  ethical  and  the  ritual  in 
revelation  and  religious  usage.  Each  of  them  must  be 
regarded  as  a  product  of  the  higher  religious  life  of  Israel. 
They  were  not  antagonistic,  though  they  wen-  antithetic 
(§  1021).      They  ran  from  the  beginning  along  parallel 

1  Coruill,  Der  israelitische  Prophetismus  (2d  ed.  1890).  p.  91. 


Ch.  V,  §  1024      THE   ETHICAL   AND   THE    RITUAL  129 

lines.  The  one  was  mainly  impelled  by  prophetic  inspira- 
tion and  direction  ;  the  other  sprang  from  the  necessities 
and  proprieties  of  formal  worship.  The  one  was  the  free 
and  untrammelled  outcome  of  reflection  and  discourse  ; 
the  other  was  the  result  of  official  deliberation  and  agree- 
ment, arrived  at  from  time  to  time  and  finally  embodied 
in  rule  and  statute.  Both  are  rooted  in  the  same  great 
dual  motive,  to  secure  the  holiness  of  Jehovah's  people 
and  the  purity  of  his  worship  ;  a  motive  working  in  long 
lines  of  historic  development,  beginning  with  the  first  pre- 
scriptions of  Moses  and  ending  perhaps  in  eternity.  But, 
looking  at  the  inherent  force  and  potency  of  the  two  ele- 
ments of  Deuteronomy,  we  see  that  the  ethical  is  both 
before  and  after  the  formal,  the  restrictive,  and  the  puni- 
tive, because  it  is  inward  ''in  the  heart  "  (I)etit.  xxx.  14), 
because  it  is  spontaneous  and  unforced,  because  it  is 
self -at  testing  and  self- justifying.  The  one  is  like  the 
cosmic  influences,  silent,  sure,  and  constant,  that  '"pre- 
serve the  stars  from  wrong  "  and  that  give  us  the  sun- 
shine and  the  seasons.  The  other  is  like  the  terrestrial 
forces,  irregular  and  uncertain,  that  bring  us  clouds  and 
rain,  lightning  and  tempest.  The  one,  like  the  air  of 
heaven,  is  the  very  breath  and  life  of  soul  and  spirit. 
The  other,  like  the  wind  that  bloweth  where  it  listeth,  is 
often  boisterous  and  harsh  ;  yet  it  keeps  the  moral  atmos- 
phere pure  and  sweet,  and  bears  the  voyager  safe  over 
life's  treacherous  sea. 

§  1024.  The  ethical  and  spiritual  ideas  of  Deuteronomy 
have  given  dignity  and  immortality  to  the  book  because 
they  inspired  and  vitalized  its  rules  and  ordinances 
and  because  in  themselves  they  have  been  among  the 
chief  of  all  historic  forces  and  agencies.  Notice  their 
adaptation  to  the  most  urgent  needs  of  the  Hebrew  com- 
munity of  the  time.  We  are  impressed  by  the  patriotism 
of  the  book,  as  being  of  the  deepest    and  truest  sort.       To 

the  people  of  Israel,  denationalized  as  they  were  by  for- 
eign customs  as  well  as  by  long  servitude  to  foreign   po- 


130  PATRIOTISM    AND  INDIVIDUALISM  Book  IX 

tentates,  the  doctrine  was  asserted  and  reiterated,  that 
tin-  land  was  Jehovah's,  and  that  they  were  the  tenants 
of  it  as  Jehovah's  people.  "  The  land  "  or  "the  rest  and 
the  inheritance"  (xii.  9)  or  "thy  gates"  (i.  e.  thy  city, 
xvi.  5)  "  which  Jehovah  thy  God  giveth  thee,"  is  a  stand- 
ing phrase  (cf.  §  580  f.).  This  notion  has  ever  since 
inspired  the  must  fervent  and  steadfast  patriotism  known 
to  the  world,  from  ancient  Palestine  to  modern  South 
Africa.  Jehovah's  service  by  Jehovah's  people  in  Jeho- 
vah's land  may  be  taken  as  the  theme  of  Deuteronomy. 
See  how  even  the  formal  prescriptions  of  the  religious  life 
are  permeated  by  the  spirit  of  this  threefold  conception  : 
"  And  now,  behold,  I  have  brought  the  first  of  the  fruits 
of  the  ground,  which  Thou,  Jehovah,  hast  given  me  !  " 
(xxvi.  10).  Such  Deuteronomic  sentiments  must  needs 
spiritualize  and  purify  from  pride  and  selfishness  the  feel- 
ings cherished  by  men  everywhere  for  home  and  family 
and  country. 

§  1025.  Even  the  conception  of  the  corporate  unity  of 
Jehovah's  people,  which  has  been  noticed  as  a  necessary 
defect  of  the  book  in  its  practical  enforcement  (§  1022), 
became  in  the  hands  of  the  writer  an  actual  preparation 
for  the  later  and  truer  principle  of  the  relation  of  the  in- 
dividual to  God.  For  the  obedience  and  worship  and 
love  of  the  heart,  which  were  demanded  upon  the  ground 
of  the  common  union  with  Jehovah,  were  bound  at  length 
to  manifest  themselves  as  a  personal  experience  and  privi- 
lege, known  besides  to  God  himself  alone.  But  we 
must  leave  the  subject  here,  content  to  have  merely 
pointed  out  some  of  the  ethical  treasures  that  lie  on  the 
surface  of  the  book,  or  at  a  little  depth  below  the  surface. 

§  1026.  And  yet  in  the  book  as  it  stands  the  purely 
spiritual  and  ethical  elements  are  secondary,  introduced 
for  the  purpose  of  upholding  and  commending  a  thorough 
and  rigorous  system  of  ritual  observance  (§  860  fL). 
They  are  the  pillars  of  a  great  structure,  strong  and 
stately,    but  still  in  this  building  only  pillars.     The  con- 


Ch.  Y,  §  1026      OUTLINE   OF   THE   RITUAL   SYSTEM  131 

sequences  of  the  ritual  system  itself  may  be  summarized 

as  follows  :  1  (1)  The  old  religion  of  Israel  found  God 
everywhere  in  the  Holy  Land,  revealing  his  power  by 
various  tokens  :  hence  the  multiplication  of  shrines  and 
images.  The  reformers,  by  abolishing  images  and  sanc- 
tuaries, left  the  common  man  outside  of  Jerusalem,  the 
favoured  shrine,  without  the  manifest  signs  of  God's 
presence,  and  therefore  in  a  sense  without  God,  since  they 
had  not  arrived  at  the  conception  of  the  divine  omnipres- 
ence. (2)  Religion  in  the  old  time  "had  been  a  matter  of 
course  and  a  constant  element  of  everyday  life.  Every 
meal  was  in  fact  a  sacrifice.  With  the  restriction  of  the 
Israelite  to  the  three  great  feasts  and  to  worship  at  Jerusa- 
lem alone,  he  was  led  to  think  of  and  to  pass  through  life  in 
a  great  measure  without  religion,  which  had  shrivelled  up 
to  the  observances  of  these  three  festal  seasons.  (3)  In 
the  olden  time  every  man  was  a  priest  in  his  own  house, 
and  sacrifices  were  offered  by  many  besides  the  priests. 
Now,  with  the  exclusive  concentration  of  the  priesthood 
in  the  tribe  of  Levi,  the  distinction  between  clergy  and 
laity  was  created.  At  the  same  time  the  priestly  func- 
tion was  modified.  The  priests,  instead  of  being  counsel- 
lors and  givers  of  oracles  at  the  local  sanctuaries,  became 
expounders  of  the  written  law.  (4)  Deuteronomy  also 
created  the  distinction  between  church  and  state.  For- 
merly the  king  and  the  government  cared  for  and  admin- 
istered the  affairs  of  religion.  Now  all  this  Mas  in  the 
hands  of  a  caste  or  order  distinct  from  nobles  and  people 
alike.  Thus  it  was  made  possible  for  Israel,  through 
this  churchly  system,  to  survive  the  destruction  of  the 
state.  (5)  Now  for  the  first  time  religion  was  grounded 
upon  a  book,  and  became  itself  a  system  of  statutes  or  a 
'•law.''  Ainl  tints  the  doctrine  of  a  Holy  Scripture  and 
its  inspiration  is  to  be  traced  finally  to  Deuteronomy. 

1  In  what  follows  of  this  paragraph  I  have  dene  little  inure  than 
abridge  the  observations  of  Cornill  in  p.  84  ff.  of  his  admirable  little 
book,  Der  israelitische  Prophetismus  (2d  ed.  1890). 


CHAPTEK    VI 

THE    EGYPTIANS    IX    PALESTINE 

§  1027.  Outward  conformity  to  prescription  was  at 
best  of  little  significance  for  the  ultimate  fate  of  the  peo- 
ple. The  chances  of  a  single  life  were  all  that  lay  between 
it  and  a  revulsion  which  might  more  than  undo  all  that 
had  been  effected  at  so  great  a  cost.  But  thirteen  years 
of  the  new  religious  regime  had  passed  when  that  life 
came  to  an  end,  and  in  a  way  which  seemed  to  belie  the 
promise  of  a  happy  reign.  During  the  years  of  Josiah's 
maturity  his  people  must  have  increased  in  numbers, 
wealth,  and  outward  strength.  Assyria  having  relaxed 
its  hold  upon  the  district  of  Samaria,  a  portion  of  the 
country  to  the  north  of  the  old  boundary  of  Judah  must 
have  been  annexed,  if  it  were  only  to  secure  protection 
against  bands  of  marauders  from  the  other  provinces  of 
Assyria  now  left  without  a  settled  government  (cf.  §  840j. 
Josiah  had  excellent  business  men  about  him  to  administer 
the  revenues  of  his  kingdom,  lie  was  a  strong  ruler,  and 
his  virtual  independence  increased  his  interest  in  tin- 
development  of  his  country.  lie  had  a  loyal  army  which 
was  ready  to  follow  him  even  in  hazardous  enterprises. 
Hence  when  it  was  thought  necessary  to  attack  a  foreign 
invader,  the  superiority  of  the  enemy  was  not  sufficient 
to  prevent   his  taking  the  field  against  him. 

§  1028.  The  conflict  witli  this  trespasser  upon  the  soil 
of  Palestine  brings  the  Hebrew  people  again  upon  the 
arena  of  a  world-moving  struggle.  It  was  the  singular 
distinction  of  this  little  community  to  be  perpetually  in- 

132 


Cn.  VI,  §  1030  THE   DYNASTY   OF   SAIS  133 

volved  in  movements  that  turned  the  channels  of  human 
history.  When  it  was  at  peace,  it  was  creating  and  work- 
ing out  the  conditions  of    moral  and   religious  progress 

that  were  to  be  the  example  and  the  inspiration  of  all 
coming  time.  When  it  was  at  war,  it  took  a  part  far 
beyond  its  relative  political  importance  in  those  inter- 
national contentions  which  decided  the  fate  of  the  most 
powerful  of  ancient  empires.  Now,  after  many  years  of 
profound  internal  repose,  it  dashed,  all  of  a  sudden,  into  a 
conflict  on  which  depended  the  fortunes  of  the  two  great 
civilizations  of  Oriental  antiquity. 

§  1020.  Of  the  reigns  of  Esarhaddon  and  Asshurbani- 
pal,  not  tlif  least  important  events  were  the  Assyrian  con- 
quest of  Egypt  under  the  former  king,  and  its  reconquest 
and  final  abandonment  by  the  latter  (§  756,  764  ff.). 
Among  other  interesting  matters  was  the  great  enlarge- 
ment of  international  relations  (§  768,  775).  The  libera- 
tion of  Egypt  from  the  Assyrian  yoke  was  due  in  large 
measure  to  mercenary  troops  of  Ionians  and  Carians  sent 
to  the  support  of  Psammetichus  I  by  Gyges,  king  of  Lydia. 
This  dependence  of  the  ruling  dynasty  upon  the  most 
available  foreign  support  continued  to  be  a  feature  of 
Egyptian  history.  The  Ethiopian  dynasty  had  been 
crushed  by  Assyria.  It  had  been  self-reliant,  patriotic, 
and  unbending.  Necho  1,  the  prince  of  Sais  in  the 
Delta,  was  a  favourite  of  the  Assyrians  (§  766);  and  to 
them  he  owed  not  only  pardon  ami  reinstatement  after 
rebellion,  but  support  during  the  rest  of  his  life.  His 
son  Psammetichus  was  fortunate  in  securing  the  aid  of 
foreigners,  who  demanded  only  their  pay  and  rations,  in 
driving  out  another  set  of  foreigners,  who  strove  for 
dominion,  homage  to  their  gods,  and  unfailing  tribute. 

|  1030.  This  dynasty  of  Sais  grew  in  power  and  in 
largeness  of  aim  and  outlook.  Sais,  the  capital,  throve 
apace,  though  Memphis,  the  old-time  northern  seat  of 
empire,  was  also  patronized.  The  name  of  another  city. 
Thebes,  or  No-Amon,  recalls  a  calamity  that  thrilled  with 


134  NECHO   II  Book  IX 

its  horrors  the  lands  across  the  Isthmus  (§  770)  and 
reminded  the  world  that  the  glory  of  Upper  Egypt  had 
departed.  The  seat  of  power  was  permanently  fixed  in 
the  Delta,  and  the  old  sacred  cities  on  the  undivided  Nile 
took  their  place  among  the  numberless  monuments  of  the 
past.  Sais  became  our  of  the  world's  centres  of  influence. 
Greek  mercenaries  and  Tyrian  merchants,  both  of  whom 
were  granted  settlements  in  the  Delta,  spread  the  fame  of 
the  reviving  empire  of  the  Pharaohs  among  the  nations. 
The  reign  of  Psammetichus,  remarkable  in  so  many  ways, 
was  distinguished  also  for  its  duration.  He  was  prince 
of  Sais  in  664  B.C.,  deliverer  and  undisputed  ruler  of 
Egypt  in  645,  and  died  about  610. 

§  1031.  Necho  II,  the  Necho  of  the  Bible,  continued 
his  father's  general  policy  and  sought  to  surpass  his 
achievements.  The  encouragement  of  foreign  soldiers, 
sailors,  and  traders  brought  with  it  an  astonishing  spirit 
of  commercial  enterprise.  He  attempted  to  restore  the 
old  Suez  Canal,  but  the  work  was  too  heavy,  and  he  was 
compelled  to  desist.1  Herodotus2  informs  us  that  Xecho 
had  fleets  of  triremes  in  the  Red  Sea  as  well  as  in  the 
Mediterranean.  His  statement 3  that  this  Pharaoh  sent 
Phoenician  ships  from  the  Red  Sea,  which  sailed  around 
Africa  ("Libya")  and  returned  through  the  straits  of 
Gibraltar  in  the  third  year  of  their  voyage,  is  now  accepted 
as  true,  being  confirmed  by  the  report  of  the  mariners 
that  during  the  trip  they  came  to  a  stage  where  the 
rising  sun  was  on  their  right  hand;  that  is,  they  turned 
to  the  north  after  sailing  to  the  south. 

§  1032.  Of  more  direct  concern  to  us  is  the  new  de- 
parture of  Pharaoh  Necho  in  foreign  political  relations. 
His  father  had  spent  his  chief  energies  in  building  up  and 
securing  the  kingdom  which  he  had  freed,  and  had  forti- 
fied  his    frontier  cities  south,  northwest,  and  northeast: 

1  This  must  be  the  real  meaning  of  the  exaggerated  story  of  Herodotus, 
II,  158. 

2  Book  II,  159.  3  P).  IV,  42. 


Cii.  VI,  §  1003  INVASION   OF   SYRIA  135 

Yet  Herodotus x  tells  of  his  having  taken  Ashdod  after  a 
long  series  of  campaigns,  ending  perhaps  about  015  B.C. 
It  is  doubtful  if  this  conquest  was  maintained,  but  it 
shows  how  eager  the  Egyptians  were  to  secure  a  base  of 
operations  in  Asia  against  Assyria.  When  Necho  came 
to  the  throne,  that  empire  had  been  shorn,  of  its  power, 
stripped  of  its  possessions,  and  dethroned  from  its  suprem- 
acy. The  lion  was  no  more  king  of  the  forest,  but  was  at 
bay  in  his  lair  (Nah.  ii.  11  f.),  and  was  being  pressed  hard 
by  the  hunters,  furious  at  the  loss  of  the  choicest  of  their 
flock.  Now  at  last  Egypt  seemed  to  have  her  opportunity. 
It  was  long  since  she  had  ruled  in  the  Westland  of  Asia. 
For  centuries  she  had  played  a  waiting  policy,  acting  on 
the  defensive,  except  when  she  was  herself  a  subject  state 
of  the  hated  Assyrian. 

§  1033.  It  was  in  Necho's  third  year  (008  B.C.)  that 
he  brought  his  motley  army  across  the  Isthmus.  Nineveh 
had  not  yet  fallen  and  had  still  a  name  to  live,  but  now 
there  was  none  to  defend  the  rich  provinces  of  Mesopo- 
tamia and  Syria,  whence  her  garrisons  had  been  with- 
drawn. Visions  of  a  larger  Egypt  rose  before  the 
Pharaoh's  imagination,  an  empire  unrestrained  by  the 
desert,  of  which  Tyre,  the  market-place  of  the  world, 
should  be  the  centre.  The  conquests  of  Thothmes  and 
Rameses,  immortalized  in  papyrus  and  stone,  should  be 
outdone  by  his  achievements.  When  he  took  the  fateful 
step,  crossed  the  River  of  Egypt  and  entered  the  Philis- 
tian  plains,  he  looked  to  meet  with  such  a  welcome  as 
that  which,  a  century  before,  had  greeted  from  afar 
the  expected  march  of  Egyptian  armies!  Then  Egypt 
was  the  hope  of  the  desperate  communities  <>!'  Palestine, 
goaded  to  madness  by  Assyrian  extortion.  Eg\  pt  was  the 
traditional  ally  of  the  oppressed  peoples  all  along  the  line 
of  march.     They  will,  lie  thinks,  make  no  opposition  to 


1  Il>.  II,  1")7.    Jeremiah  xxv.  20  speaks  of  "  Askalon,  Gaza,  and  Ekron, 
and  the  remnant  of  Ashdod." 


L36  JOSIAH   SLAIN   IN   BATTLE  Book  IX 

him  now,  and  perhaps  some  sturdy  bands  of  shepherds  or 
hunters  will  join  his  ranks  for  pay  or  the  hope  of  plun- 
der, lie  does  not  dream  of  an  attack  from  the  only  self- 
contained  nation  this  side  of  the  Euphrates.  He  knows, 
to  be  sure,  that  Josiah  had  sworn  fealty  to  the  king  of 
Assyria;  but  that  was  thirty  years  ago,  and  who,  in  any 
case,  would  keep  faith  with  a  moribund  oppressor  !  He 
p;i>scs  the  slopes  of  Judah  and  Benjamin  and  Ephraim. 
He  will  not  enter  their  territory  now.  or  even  negotiate 
with  the  king  of  Judah.  But  on  his  return,  victorious 
over  Nineveh  and  lord  of  Western  Asia,  how  eagerly  will 
the  remnant  of  Israel  come  forth  to  offer  him  homage  ! 

§  1034.  He  enters  the  [tlain  of  Jezreel,  so  full  of  names 
that  recall  the  old-time  glories  of  the  Pharaohs.  Here  he 
becomes  aware  of  an  enemy  on  his  flank.  It  is  none  other 
than  Josiah  of  Judah,  who  undertakes  to  cut  off  his  march 
and  challenges  his  right  to  pass  through  the  limits  of 
ancient  Israel.  Necho  sends  him  a  friendly  message. 
He  is  anxious  to  conciliate  him,  in  view  of  the  great  busi- 
ness now  in  hand.  "  What  have  I  to  do  with  thee,  thou 
king  of  Judah  ?  I  am  not  against  thee  this  day.  but  against 
the  (kingly)  house  with  which  I  am  at  war"  (2  Chr. 
xxxv.  21).  But  Josiah  will  not  listen.  The  armies  come 
together  at  Megiddo,  at  the  first  available  point  after  the 
plain  of  Esdraelon  (Jezreel)  had  been  entered  from  the 
southwest  by  the  pass  that  leads  from  the  vale  of 
Sharon.1      Josiah    is   hard   pressed  by  the    archers    and 

1  See  the  beautiful  map  in  HG.  Plate  VI.  Professor  Smith  argues 
rightly  againsl  the  supposition  of  Herodotus  (II,  159)  that  Necho  senl  his 
troops  by  sea  to  the  coast  and  then  followed  the  land  northeastward,  and 
remarks  that  in  that  case  he  would  have  landed  at  Akko  and  not  marched 
as  far  south  as  Megiddo.  The  ev  MaydSXip  of  Herodotus  points  to  a  con- 
fusion of  Megiddo  with  the  frequently  occurring  "Magdala."  The  site 
of  Megiddo  is  the  modern  Lejjun  ;  see  HG.  p.  385  ff.  The  Kddvris  which 
Herodotus  mentions  as  a  large  city  of  "  Syria."  captured  by  Necho  after 
the  battle,  cannot  be  Gaza,  as  some  suppose,  much  less  Jerusalem  (isn-tp  : 
el  Kuds),  It  is  probably  an  Egyptian  reminiscence  of  Kadesh  on  the 
Orontes  (§  162  f.).  The  allusion  in  Jer.  xlvii.  1  may  perhaps  be  ex- 
plained as  an  episode  of  the  expedition  of  587  (xxxvii.  5). 


Oh.  VI,  §  1037  HIS   CASE   AGAINST  EGYPT  187 

"sore  wounded "  (2  Cli.  xxxv.  23).  He  is  transferred 
by  his  men  to  a  "-second  chariot,"  and  over  the  hills  of 
Ephraim  he  is  brought  home  to  Jerusalem  to  die. 

§  1035.  The  calamity  was  great  and  irreparable,  and  the 
grief  of  the  people  of  Judah  could  not  be  restrained. 
"And  all  Judah  and  Jerusalem  mourned  for  Josiah.  And 
Jeremiah  lamented  for  Josiah.  And  all  the  singing  men 
and  singing  women  celebrate  Josiah  in  their  dirges  until 
this  day.  And  they  made  them  a  custom  in  Israel,  and 
behold  they  are  written  in  the  dirges  "  (2  Chr.  xxxv.  21  f.). 
But  no  lamentations  could  bring  back  the  good  king  to 
the  land  that  he  alone  could  rule  aright  ;  or  to  his  boys, 
who  were  exposed  by  his  death  to  dangers  and  temptations 
from  without  and  within  ;  or  to  the  work  of  Jehovah, 
which  none  of  his  kingly  successors  had  the  grace  or  the 
power  to  continue. 

§  1036.  But  to  the  stricken  people  the  folly  was  not  so 
obvious  as  it  is  to  us.  Let  us  see  what  Josiah's  motives 
must  have  been.  We  may  well  suppose  that  he  was 
influenced  by  his  oath  of  allegiance  to  Assyria.  We 
know  what  the  prophetic  view  of  this  relation  was. 
In  the  solemn  adjuration  it  was  not  simply  the  gods  of 
the  suzerain  whose  vengeance  was  invoked  upon  the 
recreant,  but  the  God  of  his  own  land  also,  who  was  held 
to  have  abjured  his  prerogative,  and  to  have  placed  his 
subjects  at  the  disposal  of  the  servants  of  Asshur  (cf.  2  K. 
xviii.  25;  §  200,  700).  And  in  proportion  to  the  piety 
and  fidelity  of  Josiah  must  have  been  his  sense  of  the 
obligation  to  keep  faith  with  his  superior.  Josiah's  com- 
pact with  Assyria  doubtless  also  included  the  obligation 
on  his  part  to  protect,  as  far  as  possible,  the  whole  of 
Palestine,  over  which  the  empire  of  the  Tigris  had  held 
direct  sway  for  more  than  a  century. 

§  1037.  However  we  may  regard  this  aspect  of  the 
situation,  we  would  in  any  ease  find  a  justification  for  the 
aggressive  action  of  the  king  of  Judah,  in  the  Egyptian 
invasion    of    his    northern    border.      Egyptian    success  in 


138  EGYPTIANS    EN   SYRIA  Book  IX 

Syria  meant  the  certain  subjection  of  Judah,  the  exchange 
of  a  nominal  vassalage  to  Assyria  for  assured  submission 
to  Egypt.  How  abhorrent  this  must  have  appeared  to  a  true 
servant  of  Jehovah  we  can  readily  imagine.  Among  other 
evils  it  might  involve  the  addition  of  African  deities  to  the 
mixed  and  impure  worship  which  had  just  been  suppressed 
but  not  extirpated.  A  student  and  disciple  of  the  proph- 
ets must  have  borne  in  mind  their  warnings  against  an 
Egyptian  alliance,  and  their  denunciations  of  Egypt  itself. 
In  the  impending  struggle  Judah  must  be  either  an  ally 
or  an  enemy  of  Egypt  ;  and  the  choice  made  by  Josiah 
was  not  unworthy  of  a  kingly  soul,  desperate  as  was  his 
march  to  the  fatal  plain  of  Megiddo. 

§  1038.  Thus  Judah  came,  for  the  first  and  last  time, 
under  Egyptian  control.  But  the  badge  of  servitude  was 
not  at  once  affixed.  Assured  of  the  ultimate  acquisition 
of  Jerusalem,  Necho  continued  his  northward  march  till 
he  reached  a  point  whence  he  could  direct  operations 
simultaneously  against  both  northern  and  southern  Syria, 
and  at  the  same  time  prevent  an  uprising  in  Palestine 
itself.  It  was  at  Riblah  on  the  Orontes  route  to  the 
Euphrates  (§  202)  in  the  northern  portion  of  Ccele-Syria, 
that  lie  fixed  his  camp — a  station  which  remained  the 
headquarters  of  great  foreign  armies  of  occupation  till  the 
end  of  the  Judaite  monarchy :  (§  1213). 

§  1039.  Meantime  the  inevitable  revolution  took  place 
in  the  little  kingdom  thus  bereft  of  head  and  hope.  As 
often  happened  in  an  ancient  Oriental  state  suddenly  left 
kingless,  two  parties  were  formed.  The  one  counselled 
submission  to  Egypt.  The  other,  consisting  of  the  "people 
of  the  land"  (§  806),  stood  tor  patriotic  independence.    The 

1  It  is  interesting  to  observe  how  the  general  conditions  of  warfare  in 
the  Westland  had  changed  since  the  days  of  Tiglathpileser  III.  Then 
the  great  vantage  points  were  Arpad,  Ilainath,  and  Damascus  (§  204. 
307,  335).  Now  from  one  central  rendezvous  the  whole  of  Syria  and 
Palestine  could  be  overlooked  and  controlled ;  so  much  had  the  Assyrian 
arms  and  government  and  military  routes  unified  the  lands  and  the 
peoples. 


Ch.  VI,  §  1039  KING  JEIIOAHAZ  1:39 

sturdy  freeholders,  who  had  begun  to  feel  the  blessings 
of  a  long  peace  and  righteous  administration,  foreboded 
impoverishment  from  the  Egyptian  yoke  with  its  fines 
and  tribute,  and  set  upon  the  throne  Josiah's  son  Jehoahaz 
(2  K.  xxiii.  30).  Of  his  unfortunate  young  life  only 
shadowy  recollections  were  left  even  to  his  own  and  the 
next  generation.  We  are  not  quite  sure  what  place  he 
held  in  the  family  of  Josiah.1  It  is  probable  that  he  was 
the  second  son  and  that  the  older,  Jehoiakim,  being  fav- 
ourable to  Egyptian  rule  (cf.  2  K.  xxiii.  34),  was  put  aside 
by  the  independent  faction.  His  given  name  seems  to 
have  been  Shallum  (Jer.  xxii.  11).  Of  his  general 
character  we  have  little  or  no  indication.  The  poetical 
sketch  by  Ezekiel  (xxi.  3),  which  is  identical  with  that 
drawn  of  Jehoiakim  (xix.  6),  is  nothing  more  than  a  charac- 
terization of  the  average  king  of  Judah.  His  reign  of  three 
months  was,  indeed,  too  brief  to  leave  any  definite  impres- 
sion. Courage,  at  least,  was  shown  by  his  defiance  of  the 
Egyptian  king  and  army.  The  next  step  was  the  natural 
sequel  to  the  overthrow  of  Josiah.  A  force  was  sent 
against  Jerusalem.  The  city  was  besieged  and  soon 
capitulated.       Jehoahaz  was   dethroned    and   brought    in 

1  According  to  2  K.  xxiii.  31,  Jehoahaz  was  twenty-three  years  old 
at  his  accession,  and  according  to  xxiii.  36  his  brother  Jehoiakim  was 
twenty-five.  Hence  we  would  infer  that  Jehoahaz  was  the  second  in  age. 
But,  the  list  of  the  sons  of  Josiah  in  ]  Chr.  iii.  17  f.  (in  which  the  Lucian 
Sept.  reads  correctly  "Jehoahaz"  instead  of  the  unknown  "Johanan" 
of  the  received  text)  declares  him  to  be  the  eldest.  What  is  still  more 
extraordinary,  the  same  list,  giving  four  sons,  calls  the  youngest  "  Shal- 
lum," the  name  by  which  Jehoahaz  is  known  to  Jeremiah  (xxii.  11). 
From  this  one  might  be  tempted  to  infer  that  Jehoahaz  was  really  the 
youngest  son,  whom  the  landholders  had  enthroned  as  a  mere  lad  and  as 
tlms  being  more  likely  to  yield  to  their  purposes;  that  ••Johanan."  the 
eldest,  had  died  in  infancy  ;  and  thai  the "  twenty-three "  of  2  K.  xxiii.  31 
(copied  in  2  Chr.  xxxvi.  2)  is  an  error.  More  likely  is  it,  however,  that 
the  compilers  of  the  list  of  sons,  overlooking  the  identity  of  Jehoahaz  and 
Shallum.  found  a  place  foi  the  latter  name  by  putting  it  at  the  end  of 
the  group.  Again,  it  is  quite  possible  that  the  same  compilers,  taking 
account  of  the  fact  that  Jehoahaz  was  the  first  to  ascend  the  throne, 
assumed  that  he  was  the  eldest. 


140  THE    EXILED    KING   AND    HIS   SUCCESSOR       Book  IX 

chains  to  Pharaoh  in  his  northern  encampment.  His 
fate  was  such  as  in  those  days  befitted  a  rebel  of  the  first 
degree.  He  was  carried  away  to  Egypt  (2  K.  xxiii.  34) 
with  every  mark  of  ignominy  (cf.  Ez.  xix.  4  and  §  802). 
With  him  were  deported  a  considerable  number  of  the 
people,  who  formed  a  sort  of  colony  for  a  few  years  at  least 
(Jer.  xxiv.  8).  There  he  remained  a  prisoner,  and  no  man 
knows  when  death  released  him  from  that  ancient  "house 
of  bondage.""  Though  little  trace  is  left  of  him  in  the 
records  of  history  or  in  human  memory,  certain  words 
uttered  concerning  him,  more  perhaps  in  sorrow  than 
regret,  are  unforgetable. 

"  Do  not  weep  for  the  dead, 
And  do  not  mourn  for  him ; 
Weep  sore  for  him  that  goeth  away, 
For  he  shall  never  more  return, 
And  see  the  land  of  his  birth.1 

"  For  thus  saith  Jehovah  as  to  Shallum,  son  of  Josiah, 
king  of  Judah,  who  reigned  instead  of  Josiah  his  father, 
and  who  went  forth  from  this  place  :  He  shall  not  return 
thither  any  more.  For  in  this  place  whither  they  carried 
him  captive  there  he  shall  die,  and  this  land  he  shall  see 
no  more."     (Jer.  xxii.  10  f.  ;   cf.  §  1143.) 

§  1040.  Eliakim  (••Whom  God  establishes"),  presuma- 
bly the  eldest  son  of  Josiah,  was  now  placed  upon  the 
throne  by  the  Egyptian  invader  to  advertise  to  the  world 
his  own  supremacy  in  Palestine,  and  to  impress  upon  the 
people  of  Judah  their  change  of  masters.  Pharaoh  modi- 
fied   his  name2    to  Jehoiakim   ("Whom    Jehovah   estab- 

1  Cf.  §  301,  ami  the  article.  "What  Exile  meant  to  Israel,"  in  the 
Sunday  School  Times,  Sept.  9.  1809. 

-  There  was  no  usage  among  ancient  Orientals  more  expressive  than 
the  giving  of  personal  names.  The  name  was  not  a  label,  as  it  is  with 
us,  but  a  characteristic.  In  Hebrew  phraseology  it  is  sometimes  even 
equivalent  to  the  person  himself,  as  '-the  name  of  Jehovah."  Among 
other  relations  it  specially  indicates  that  of  dependence,  above  all  when 
it  is  "  theophorous,"  or  bears  the  name  of  a  deity  (cf.  §407..  In  the 
pr<  si  hi  case  Necho  would  not  alter  the  essential  meaning  of  the  name,  for 


Cii.  VI,  §  1042       EGYPT   AND   THE    CIIALD.EAXS  141 

lishes").  A  line  of  one  hundred  talents  of  silver  and 
one  talent  of  gold  was  levied  directly  upon  the  land,  and 
this  amount  was  duly  exacted  from  the  baffled  freeholders 
(2  K.  xxiii.  33). 

§  1041.  Jehoiakim  had  as  king  a  difficult  task  to  fulfil, 
and  neither  his  mental  nor  his  moral  endowments  Mere 
equal  to  his  responsibilities.  I  lis  character  will  require 
our  attention  later,  as  a  matter  of  Biblical  interest  (§  1122). 
AYe  are  now  more  directly  concerned  with  the  events  of 
his  reign.  For  three  years  and  longer  the  Egyptian  yoke 
was  worn  by  the  people  of  Judah.  Probably  a  reasonable 
autonomy  was  granted  them.  Egypt's  best  policy  was 
to  make  the  dependence  as  little  galling  as  possible  ;  for, 
though  rebellion  was  certain  to  be  unsuccessful,  the  hands 
of  the  Egyptians  were  tied  by  the  necessity  of  guarding 
the  eastern  frontier  of  their  newly  acquired  possession. 
And  ere  long  their  light-hearted  campaign  was  completely 
frustrated  by  the  Chaldsean  conqueror,  who  had  already 
claimed  the  Assyrian  realm  as  his  inheritance  and  was 
steadily  advancing  to  the  realization  of  his  purpose. 

§  1042.  The  reconquest  of  the  Assyrian  provinees  of 
the  West  was,  however,  not  to  be  the  achievement  of 
Nabopalassar  himself.  According  to  the  account  which 
Ave  get  from  Berossus  by  way  of  Josephus,  the  Chaldsean 
leader  remitted  this  arduous  task  to  his  son  Nebuchad- 
rezzar, who  was  said  to  have  borne  an  important  share  in 
the  conquest  of  Nineveh,  lie  had  had  a  busy  life,  spent 
in  the  slow  process  of  building  up  his  native  state  till 
it  could  divide  with  the  aggressive  Median  power  the 
sovereignty  of  the  richest  port  inn  of  the  world.  He  had 
now  spent  two  years  at  least  (cf.  §  <s27  )  in  the  business  of 
introducing  law  and  order  into  his  eastern  provinces.  I  Jut 
it  was  a  matter  of  time  to  win   over  the  country  between 

Judah  was  still  Jehovah's  land.     Hut  the  very  slightest  chant:!'  in  the  form 

would  imply  bis  authority  as  the  namer,  and  therefore  the  master,  of  the 
subject  prince.  At  the  same  time  the  term  chosen  would  indicate  his 
patronage  of  the  local  religion  of  Jehovah. 


1  12  EGYPT   GIVES   PLACE   TO   BABYLONIA         Book  IX 

the   Rivers  to  the  new  regime,  and  to  adjust  so  many  un- 
settled districts  to  the  new  government. 

§  1043.  It  was,  accordingly,  not  till  605  that  young 
Nebuchadrezzar  was  ready  to  cross  the  Euphrates.  His 
encounter  with  the  Egyptians  must  have  seemed  a  predes- 
tined success.  Pharaoh  Necho,  in  spite  of  his  years  of 
occupation,  soon  realized  how  insecure  was  his  tenure  of 
the  old  Egyptian  possessions  (§  1033).  He  did  not  dare 
to  meet  the  advance  of  the  Chakheans  on  the  east  of  the 
River,  but  made  his  stand  at  Carchemish  (Jer.  xlvi.  2), 
the  famous  old  fortress  and  emporium  on  the  western 
side.  The  defeat  of  the  Egyptians  was  followed  by  their 
retreat  and  their  eventual  abandonment  of  their  Asiatic 
dominions.  Thus  the  futility  of  Egypt  as  a  military 
]  lower  was  once  more  demonstrated,  and  its  fondest  hopes 
of  an  Asiatic  empire  shattered  forever. 

§  1044.  The  kingdom  of  Judah  fell  in  due  course  to 
the  victorious  Chakkean.  The  fate  of  the  Hebrew  peo- 
ple was  henceforth  for  nearly  ninety  years  bound  up  with 
the  policy  and  fortunes  of  the  Babylonian  empire.  Our 
interest  in  their  outer  and  inner  history  becomes  more 
intcllierent  when  we  remember  their  wider  relations. 
Whether  at  home  as  a  subject  state,  or  in  exile  as  a  band 
of  slaves,  the  Hebrew  community  was  but  one  of  a  number 
which  owned  the  sovereignty  of  Babylon,  and  played  their 
parts  in  the  world  under  its  protection  and  surveillance, 
and  under  the  external  conditions  which  it  imposed.  We 
must  therefore  try  to  get  some  tolerably  correct  notion 
of  the  genius  and  scope  of  this  later  Babylonian  regime, 
and  of  the  policy  of  the  ruler  who  made  so  deep  an  impress 
upon  his  own  and  later  times. 


Book  X 
HEBREWS  AND   CHALDuEANS 

CHAPTER   I 

BABYLON   AND    NEBUCHADREZZAR 

§  1045.  We  have  now  arrived  at  one  of  those  turning- 
points  in  the  affairs  of  Israel  and  of  the  world,  which  may 
well  make  us  pause  for  a  brief  retrospect.  There  is  a 
widespread  impression  that  ancient  Semitic  history,  in  con- 
trast with  that  of  the  Western  lands,  is  monotonous  and 
lifeless,  devoid  of  a  continuous  purpose  and  of  great 
inward  motives.  One  of  the  aims  of  the  present  work 
is  to  rectify  this  error,  and  to  show  to  what  great  issues 
the  history  of  the  North  Semitic  communities  continually 
and  coherently  tended.  Next  to  Israel  itself  the  most 
potent  factor  in  this  process  of  the  ages  was  Babylonia. 
The  significance  of  some  of  the  very  earliest  movements 
in  the  valley  of  the  lower  Euphrates  has  been  already 
foreshadowed  (§  93,  116,  291),  and  will  soon  appear 
more  clearly  in  the  unfolding  of  the  decisive  events. 
Even  the  history  of  the  Assyrian  empire,  involving  the 
fate  of  Israel  and  of  Western  Asia  during  its  critical 
epochs,  was  but  a  side-current  in  a  larger  stream,  fed  at 
the  beginning,  and  ever  and  anon  replenished,  by  Baby- 
lonian thought  and  endeavour. 

143 


144  STORY    OF    THE    CHALDEANS  Book  X 

§  1046.  From  the  political  and  moral  standpoint  none 
of  these  movements  was  more  important  than  the  latest 
of  the  Babylonian  revolutions  —  that  which  made  the 
Chaldseans  leaders  of  the  Semitic  world.  Apart  from 
the  essential  significance  of  this  movement  there  attaches 
to  the  story  of  the  Chaldseans  a  romantic  interest  but 
seldom  awakened  by  the  achievements  of  Oriental  com- 
munities. The  nearest  parallel  is  that  afforded  by  the 
history  of  the  rise  of  Judah  to  predominance  among  the 
trihes  of  Israel.  But  in  the  vicissitudes  of  the  Chahhean 
princes  there  is  even  more  of  heroic  and  patriotic  achieve- 
ment than  that  which  has  made  so  illustrious  and  fasci- 
nating the  career  and  adventures  of  David.  Their  efforts 
to  expel  the  Assyrians  from  Babylon,  and  to  secure  for 
themselves  the  dominion  which  they  alone  had  the  genius 
and  the  courage  to  administer,  lasted  for  a  century  and 
a  half,  and  was  carried  on  during  most  of  that  period 
against  fearful  odds. 

§  1047.  To  recall  to  the  reader  their  deeds  and  their 
fate  I  need  only  refer  to  the  earlier  passages  in  this  work 
devoted  to  their  commemoration.  Under  their  own  proper 
name  they  come  first  into  view  in  the  ninth  century  B.C. 
(§  223).  For  a  hundred  years  they  submit  with  but  little 
resistance  to  the  Assyrian  kings.  Next  we  see  their 
tribes  resisting  in  common  the  Assyrian  encroachments, 
and  showing  on  their  own  part  an  equal  and  unique 
aggressiveness.  Then  we  find  them  during  the  reigns  of 
Sargon  and  Sinacherib  under  the  leadership  of  the  great 
Merodach-baladan  aspiring  to  the  possession  of  Babylon 
itself,  and  maintaining  there  an  intermittent  authority, 
fraternizing  with  the  patriotic  party  throughout  Babylonia, 
winning  over  for  a  time  the  all-powerful  priestly  interests,' 
and  when  forced  to  retreat  to  their  native  haunts  by  the 
sea,  proving  themselves  to  be  almost  an  invincible  foe. 
The  persistent  onslaughts  of  Sinacherib  kept  them  in  the 
background,  and  thereafter  till  the  end  of  the  Assyrian 
empire  they  were  forced  to  content  themselves  with  re' 


Ch.  I,  §  1049  THEIR   ORIGIN   AND    GENIUS  145 

prisals  and  precarious  alliances  with  the  foes  of  the  op- 
pressor. The  leaders  of  the  Chaldrean  uprising  were 
hunted  down  and  exterminated  to  the  third  generation  by 
the  last  of  the  great  Assyrian  kings.  But  the  overthrow 
of  his  dynasty  and  the  destruction  of  his  empire  soon  fol- 
lowed as  the  Nemesis  of  this  and  kindred  atrocities,  and 
swift  as  was  Assyria's  decline  and  fall,  swift  also  was  the 
rise  of  the  Chakhean  power. 

§  1048.  Obscure  as  is  the  origin  of  these  adventurers 
from  the  "  Sea-land,"  their  national  character  and  politi- 
cal methods  are  unmistakably  clear.  Though  their 
antecedents  seem  unfavourable  to  such  an  historical 
role,  they  were  genuinely  Babylonian  in  their  spirit  and 
aims,  and  completely  identified  with  the  old  Babylonian 
policy  in  church  and  state.  Nor  was  this  attachment  to 
Babylonian  things  ami  ideas  a  mere  result  of  their  acquisi- 
tion of  the  city  of  Babylon  with  its  imposing  institutions 
and  inspiring  traditions.  From  the  earliest  time  of  their 
appearance  in  history  they  show  evidence  of  a  certain 
community  with  the  very  locality  which  afterwards 
became  the  centre  of  their  dominion.  Their  favourite 
objects  of  worship,  as  we  learn  from  the  naming  of  their 
children,  were  precisely  those  deities  which  were  honoured 
above  all  in  Babylon  and  Borsippa,  the  gods  Merodach 
and  Nebo.  This  coincidence,  with  the  fact  that  they 
seemed  to  claim  a  certain  right  to  rule  and  protect 
the  city  of  Babylon,  suggests  that  whatever  may  have 
been  the  origin  of  the  bulk  of  the  population  (ef.  §  223), 
at  least  the  ruling  class  were  of  Babylonian  origin  in  the 
strictest  sense  of  the  term.  They  were  possibly  a  colony 
driven  southward  by  the  Kasshite  invaders  (§  120  if.). 

§  1049.  Along  with  these  tendencies  the  Chabhean 
empire  established  by  Nebuchadrezzar  exhibited  a  genius 
for  centralizing  government  which  was  distinctively  Assyr- 
ian. The  new  establishment,  standing  as  it  did  in  the 
direct  line  of  imperial  development  which  culminated  in 
the  Roman  empire  (§  6),  naturally  enough  assimilated  the 


14G  NO   CHALDJEAN    REVOLUTION    IX  ASIA  Book  X 

antecedent  political  and  national  types.  The  temper  of 
the  Babylonian  people,  encouraged  by  the  religious  and 
mercantile  habit,  was  politically  too  inert  to  secure  the 
supremacy  or  even  the  continued  liberty  of  the  state. 
Assyria,  on  the  other  hand,  had  perfected  a  military  and 
political  system,  which  if  imitated  with  moderation  and 
caution,  might  well  be  expected  to  endure  in  peace 
and  safety.  It  is  this  synthesis  in  the  Chahhean  mon- 
archy of  the  Babylonian  and  Assyrian  types  of  national 
spirit  and  purpose  which  has  given  such  significance  to  the 
closing  epoch  of  the  ancient  Semitic  regime.  But  of  this 
later  on.  We  are  now  to  see  how  Nebuchadrezzar  the 
Chahhean  dealt  with  the  old  subject  states  of  the  West. 

§  1050.  Though  the  Chahhean  type  of  government 
had  such  a  general  resemblance  to  its  predecessor,  the 
process  of  erecting  the  new  empire  upon  the  ruins  of  the 
old  almost  seems  to  have  violated  a  necessary  law  of 
Oriental  history.  Nineveh  had  fallen ;  but  would  not 
the  victor  ruling  in  Babylon  continue  the  policy  and  the 
methods  of  the  Assyrian  empire  in  all  their  rigour? 
"Western  Asia  had  never  known  such  a  stern  regimen  as 
that  which  was  wielded  from  the  banks  of  the  Tigris, 
nor  was  any  such  to  be  henceforth  known  in  that  ill-fated 
land,  until  Tartar  cruelty  and  Muslim  intolerance  were 
made  secure  by  "Christian"  diplomacy,  until  Assyrian 
paganism  was  outdone  in  savage  lust  by  a  system  which 
follows  up  conquest  with  devastation,  and  prolongs  the 
horrors  of  war  in  official  rapine  and  murder.  In  the 
remaking  of  the  nations,  after  the  collapse  of  Assyria, 
there  was  something  new  under  the  sun.  It  had  been 
the  standing  order  of  the  ancient  world  that  one  form 
of  tyranny  over  feeble  states  should  be  superseded  by 
another  equally  galling,  that  the  resettlement  of  affairs 
in  the  subject  territory  should  involve  the  turmoil  and 
bloodshed  of  a  tedious  reconquest.  Such  was  not  the 
fate  of  the  lands  that  had  owned  the  sceptre  of  Nineveh. 
The  reason  was.  in  part,  that  they  were  weary  of  resist- 


Ch.  I.  §  1051  NABOPALASSAK  147 

ance  and  of  strife,  and  were  ready  to  accept  any  rule  that 
would  not  press  too  heavily.  The  work  of  subverting 
the  nations  had  been  done  by  the  Assyrian  once  for  all. 
No  subjugation  in  detail  was  needed  by  Chaldaean  or  Per- 
sian or  Macedonian  or  Roman.  Hence  the  wonder  of  the 
Chaldaean  revolution.  Momentous  as  was  the  effacement 
of  the  first  empire  of  the  world,  the  establishment  of  the 
second,  under  a  new  autocrat,  did  not  reverse  the  political 
fortunes  of  the  dependent  peoples.  With  them  the  deci- 
sive question  was  whether  the  Assyrian  should  have  an 
imperial  successor.  When  this  issue  was  fully  decided, 
the  affairs  of  the  Semitic  world  resumed  their  normal 
course,  with  Babylon  at  the  helm  instead  of  Nineveh. 
Syria  and  Palestine  were  longer  disturbed  than  the  other 
old  dependencies  of  Assyria,  but  the  distortion  was  soon 
set  right  again. 

sj  1051.  This  freedom  from  disturbance  was  also  due, 
in  large  measure,  to  the  character  of  the  first  two  rulers 
of  the  new  empire,  who  were  men  remarkable  for  energy 
and  wisdom.  The  earlier  career  of  Nabopalassar  (625- 
605  B.C.)  1  has  already  been  described.  His  breadth  of 
view  was  shown  by  his  alliance  with  C}*axares  of  Media, 
and  by  his  plans  for  the  organization  of  the  dominion  that 
fell  so  suddenly  into  his  hands.  The  allotment  of  the  re- 
spective spheres  of  control,  which  eventually  became,  in 
both  rases,  actual  possessions,  was  made  on  the  simple  and 


1  Of  tliis  epoch-making  prince  something  more  personal  is  known  from 
his  own  inscriptions.  He  appears  as  the  devout  restorer  of  the  temple 
of  Merodach,  ••tin.'  temple  of  the  foundations  of  heaven  and  earth"  in 
I'.alivlon,  and  of  the  temple  of  Mr-lit  i  Melt  is)  at  Sippar.  His  care  for  Sip- 
par  is  also  shown  by  his  having  built  a  canal  for  restoring  the  deflected 
waters  of  tin'  Euphrates  to  that  ancient  city  (§94).  These  acts  indicate 
his  desire  to  make  northern  Babylonia,  which  had  been  longest  under 
Assyrian  control,  more  surely  Chaldaean.  The  Merodach  temple  inscrip- 
tions are  published  by  Strassmaier,  in  ZA.  iv,  129  ff..  with  translation  (for 

which   ef.    KB.   iii.  "_'.  p.  'J.  ff.),  and.  after  a   more  complete  copy,  by  Ilil- 

precht,  in  OBT.  I.  pi.  ::•_'.  ••)••;  i  transcribed  by  l».  W.  McGee,  MA.  iii,  52 
those  relating  to  Sippar,  by  Wmckler,  in  ZA.  ii.  •!'.»  ff.,  145  f..  and  172  f. 

(cf.  KM.  iii,  2,  p.  6  ff.,  and  MA.  iii.  .VJT  f.). 


148  MKDIAN  AND  BABYLONIAN    LIMITS  Book  X 

obvious  basis  that  the  Medes  should  have  the  highlands  and 
the  Chaldaeans  the  lowlands  of  Western  Asia.  Each  peo- 
ple thus  chose  according  to  its  previous  habit  of  life  and 
native  preference,  and  upon  the  lines  thus  indicated  each 
advanced  till  the  limit  of  extension  was  reached.1  Hence 
the  Chaldsean  realm  embraced  nearly  all  that  the  As- 
syrians had  succeeded  in  organizing  and  controlling  —  a 
territory  thus  made  ready  for  a  new  imperial  adminis- 
tration. Assyria  proper  (§  74)  was  itself  divided.  The 
northern  portion  lying-  on  the  mountain  slopes  fell  to 
Media,  which  thus  kept  guard  over  Nineveh,  while  that 
which  lay  to  the  south  of  the  Lower  Zab  became  Baby- 
lonian. The  boundary  lines,  defined  by  nature,  were,  as 
far  as  we  know,  always  settled  amicably,  in  spite  of  the 
expansion  of  the  two  empires  along  contiguous  lines. 
Moreover,  the  Medes  became  indirectly  protectors  of 
Babylonia.  The  chief  danger  which  had  long  threatened 
the  Semitic  country,  and  which  contributed  greatly  to  the 
ruin  of  Assyria,  was  the  incursions  of  mountain  tribes 
from  the  north.  These  were  kept  in  hand  by  the  Medes, 
who  made  them  either  allies  or  subjects. 

§  1052.  Only  two  years  of  life  remained  to  Nabopalassar 
after  the  fall  of  Nineveh,  and  it  was  reserved  to  his  illus- 
trious son  to  give  its  permanent  character  to  the  Chaldeean 
name  and  empire.  Nebuchadrezzar  II  (Nabu-kudur-usur, 
"Nebo,  preserve  the  boundary, "  604-562  B.C.),  though 
the  heir  of  the  Assyrian  monarchy,  was  a  genuine  Babylo- 
nian in  spirit  and  temper.  lie  is,  indeed,  the  representa- 
tive Babylonian,  as  Tiglathpileser  III  is  the  representative 
Assyrian.  With  him  conquest  Mas  not  the  occupation  nor 
dominion  the  end  of  the  life  of  a  monarch.  These  were  a 
part  of  his  responsibilities  as  successor  t<»  a  line  of  warriors 
and  world-rulers  ;  but  his  real  interest  was  the  worship  of 

1  It  is  noteworthy  that  the  Medo-Persian  expansion  under  Cyrus 
(S  1386 S.  :  continued  in  the  same  direction,  the  Babylonian  empire  re- 
maining intact  long  after  Cyrus  had  subdued  tin-  whole  of  tin/  highlands 

as  far  as  the  coast  of  the  -35gean. 


Ch.  I,  §  1053  NEBUCHADREZZAR  140 

his  gods,  the  care  of  their  temples,  unci  the  upbuilding  of 
Babylonia,  especially  of  its  capital  city.  As  the  head 
of  an  empire  he  stood  midway  between  the  Assyrian  and 
the  Persian  types  :  he  did  not  harass  and  ravage  his  subjects 
like  the  former,  while  he  did  not  study  local  interests  like 
the  latter  (see  §  1414).  He  cannot  fairly  be  called  an 
aggressive  ruler.  His  general  policy  was  rather  to  keep 
the  empire  intact,  according  to  its  Assyrian  limits,  than 
to  extend  its  boundaries.  Hence,  as  a  ride,  he  avoided 
aggressive  war  throughout  his  long  reign.  His  slowness 
to  undertake  suppressive  campaigns,  and  the  freedom  he 
allowed  his  vassals,  as  in  the  case  of  the  kings  of  Judah, 
were  due  to  his  tolerant  and  generous  disposition,  as  well 
as  to  his  preoccupation  with  his  beloved  Babylon  (§  1055). 
He  reminds  us  somewhat  of  Esarhaddon  (§  762)  in  his 
largeness  of  view  and  o-oodness  of  heart.  Of  Nebuchad- 
rezzar  also  it  can  be  said  that,  while  stern  toward  the 
Leaders  of  a  rebellion,  the  mass  of  the  offending  com- 
munity were  treated  with  consideration  —  a  fact  to  which 
the  people  of  Judah  owed  their  survival. 

§  1053.  Under  the  old  Semitic  type  of  government  a 
strong  monarch  literally  made  the  kingdom  or  the  em- 
pire (§  51,  534).  The  importance  of  Nebuchadrezzar 
for  the  history  of  Israel  and  of  Revelation  makes  it  fortu- 
nate that  he  is  one  of  the  few  ancient  Orientals  of  whose 
personality  we  can  gain  some  knowledge.  There  are 
two  aspects  of  his  character  which  specially  reveal  the 
source  of  his  influence.  In  one  of  these  he  appears  as  a 
religious    man    and  in  the  other  as  a  patriot.1       Strictly 

1  It  is  only  these  aspects  of  liis  character  thai  arc  illustrated  in  his 
numerous  inscriptions  so  tar  discovered.  Like  other  Babylonian  kings, 
he  describes  his  temples,  palaces,  ami  public  works,  and  ignores  Ins  mili- 
tary and  political  achievements.     The  principal  published  inscription  is 

that  in  the  possession  of  the  Last  Indian  Office  in  London,  in  archaic 
characters,  I  R.  53-58  (in  cursive  or  modern  Babylonian,  59-64).  I  R. 651 
also  gives  the  cylinder  inscription  firsl  published  by  the  famous  Grotefend 

in  1  S  IS.  and  a  few  shorter  ones  appear  iii   I  li.  51  f.      Since  the  date  of  I  K. 

( 1861 ),  several  others  have  been  found  and  published.    Si  e  the  transcrip- 


150  A   RELIGIOUS   CHALDJEAN  Book  X 

speaking,  the  religious  sentiment  explains  most  of  his 
public  actions.  Babylonian  kings  generally,  as  compared 
with  those  of  Assyria,  showed  their  devotion  to  the  gods 
by  preserving  and  beautifying  their  sanctuaries  rather 
than  by  subduing  the  nations  in  order  to  increase  the 
number  of  their  Notaries.  How  much  more  highly  he 
estimated  his  favourite  form  of  practical  religion  is  evi- 
dent from  the  tenor  of  his  principal  inscription,  in  which 
he  makes  almost  the  only  allusion  to  his  warlike  achieve- 
ments found  on  his  monuments.  In  this  passage,3  which 
merely  forms  part  of  an  introduction  to  the  story  of  his 
works  of  piety  at  home,  he  speaks  of  having  subdued 
many  countries  near  and  far  in  the  service  of  Merodach. 
§  1054.  The  inscriptions  of  Nebuchadrezzar  are  not 
singular  in  being  full  of  devout  expressions.  What  we 
observe  in  him  is  the  concentration  of  his  devotion  upon 
a  few  gods  of  the  Babylonian  pantheon,  especially  Mero- 
daeh,  the  healer  and  protector  of  mankind,  and  his  son 
Nebo,  the  god  of  revelation  and  knowledge.  These 
were,  to  be  sure,  the  tutelary  deities  of  Babylon  and  the 
surrounding  region,  so  that  he  would  worship  them 
chiefly  in  any  ease.  But  it  is  the  kind  of  worship  paid 
to  any  deit}-  that  indicates  the  character  of  the  wor- 
shipper. Now  what  is  conspicuous  in  Nebuchadrezzar 
is  the  purity  and  self-abandonment  of  his  adoration,  as 
contrasted  with  the  self-laudatory  grandiloquence  of  the 
Assyrian  kings.  Indeed,  there  was  none  among  all  the 
ancient  Semites  whose  recorded  utterances  are  so  little 
unlike  those  of  the  worshippers  of  Jehovah.     The  follow- 

tions  and  translations  by  Winckler  in  KB.  iii,  2,  pp.  10-71,  forming  a 
valuable  handbook  of  the  monuments  of  the  great  Chaldsean.  There 
nearly  all  the  published  inscriptions  are  given  except  Pognon's  Inscrip- 
tions babyl.  de  Wadi  Brissa  (§  1211  note).  A  long  inscription  in  fine 
preservation  lias  been  obtained  by  the  Pennsylvania  expedition.  Brief 
inscriptions,  at  least,  he  must  have  written  about  other  matters,  for  a 
fragment  much  mutilated  tells  of  an  expedition  to  Egypt  in  his  thirty- 
seventh  year.  See  Pinches,  in  TSBA.  vii,  210  ff.,  and  Tiele,  BAG.  435  f. 
1  Neb.  II,  12  ff. 


Ch.  I,  §  1055  RELIGIOUS   MOTIVE   DOMINANT  151 

ing  is  a  prayer  to  Merodach  :  "  Everlasting  ruler,  lord  of 
all  that  is,  the  king-  to  whom  thou  hast  given  a  name  well- 
pleasing  to  thyself,  make  thou  him  x  to  prosper  and  lead 
him  upon  a  plain  path.2  I  am  the  prince  obedient  to 
thee,  the  creature  of  thy  hand ;  thou  hast  created  me  and 
hast  allotted  to  me  the  dominion  of  the  whole  race  of 
men.  According  to  thy  grace,  O  Lord,  which  thou  hast 
made  to  pass  over  them  all,  let  me  love  thy  glorious  do- 
minion ;  let  the  fear  of  thy  god-head  dwell  in  my  heart  ; 
grant  what  seemeth  good  to  thee,  O  thou  who  hast  created 
my  life."3  Such  was  the  religion  of  the  Chaldaian  "ser- 
vant of  Jehovah "  (Jer.  xxv.  9.).  Thus  were  fulfilled 
the  pious  hopes  of  Nabopalassar,  who  has  left  on  record i 
that  in  restoring  the  great  temple  of  Merodach  in  Baby- 
lon, he  himself  and  his  two  sons  joined  in  the  tasks  of  the 
workmen  (cf.  §  749),  and  that  he  bade  the  older  lad  carry 
mortar  to  the  walls  and  bring  offerings  of  wine  and  oil. 

§  1055.  In  his  patriotic  endeavours  to  build  up  and 
strengthen  Babylon,  the  main  motive  was  also  religious.5 
Indeed,  every  public  work  was  a  religious  performance, 
Moreover,  the  temples  and  the  priestly  organization  held 
such  practical  control  that  no  business  interest  was  un- 
touched b}T  them.  But  the  reader  should  have  a  clearer 
idea  of  the  city  and  the  country  which  made  a  second 
home  for  Israel  during  so  many  years.  Of  the  plans  for 
developing  the  country  at  large  we  can  speak  better  when 
we  come  to  describe  the  Hebrew  colony  on  the  Kebar 
(§  1272  ff.).  The  Babylon  of  the  time,  where  some  of  the 
exiles  dwelt,  and  which  was  virtually  a  creation  of  the 
Great  King,  may  here    be  very  briefly  described. 


1  Literally,  "  his  name."      (Cf.  §  1410  note.) 

2  Ps.  xxvii.  11.     The  words  tor  "plain"  in  the  two  prayers  are  from 
the  same  root  "\vh. 

'■■  Xeb.  I,  55  ff.  ;  II,  1. 

4  Inscription  fur  the  temple  of  Merodach,  II.  00  ff. 

5  This  hail  the  result,  of  undue  care   fur   Babylonia,  at  the  expense  of 
the  interests  of  the  subject  states  ;  cf.  §  1 L62. 


152  BABYLON   THE    GREAT  Book  X 

§  1056.  The  Bible  student  and  the  student  of  history 
are  equally  moved  by  the  name  of  Babylon.1  It  is  per- 
haps our  most  familiar  type  of  fallen  and  desolate  grandeur. 
Complete  as  is  its  present  desolation,  its  former  glory 
was  equally  conspicuous.  Oriental  antiquity  bad  nothing 
to  equal  it,  and  to  the  western  world  it  long  remained  the 
ideal  of  human  magnificence.  It  was  the  immemorial 
capital  of  a  great  community,  to  which,  above  all  other 
nations,  ancient  traditions  were  precious  and  sacred.  In 
it  were  gathered  the  treasures  of  the  literature,  science, 
and  art  of  a  people  among  whom  knowledge  and  skill  were 
always  appreciated  and  always  progressive.  It  was  the 
emporium,  the  workshop,  and  the  university  of  Asia.  It 
was  the  survivor  and  the  heir,  not  merely  of  many  opu- 
lent cities,  but  even  of  old  superseded  civilizations.  It 
was  now  prosperous  as  never  before.  The  time,  too,  was 
propitious.  The  Semitic  world  was  enjoying  the  blessings 
of  peace,  after  the  downfall  of  the  Assyrian  disturber  and 
the  tumults  and  strife  of  many  centuries.     The  Chaldaan 


1  Any  description  of  the  Chaldsean  Babylon  must  still  be  very  general. 
Since  the  era  of  modern  rediscovery,  the  native  records  have  given  us  the 
first  authentic  accounts  (see  note  to  §  1053).  But  from  the  point  of  view 
of  the  writers,  the  details  are  necessarily  selective  rather  than  descriptive, 
and  valuable  information  is  to  be  gained  from  classical  writers,  especially 
Herodotus  (I,  178  ff.),  who  personally  viewed  the  city  about  450  n.c. 
The  account  of  Ctesias  (in  Diodorus  Siculus)  is  somewhat  less  reliable. 
Very  important,  though  scarcely  more  than  panoramic,  are  the  state- 
ments of  Berossus  (in  Josepbus  against  Apion,  I.  10,  §  1057),  himself  a 
resilient  of  Babylon.  One  of  the  best  modern  descriptions  is  that  of 
Tiele  (  BAG.  pp.  441-454),  and  there  is  a  good,  though  too  reserved,  dis- 
cussion  by  Pinches,  in  EB.,  art.  '-Babylon,"  with  a  plan.  In  both  of 
these  essays  the  observations  of  the  modern  travellers  —  Rich,  Taylor, 
Ainsworth,  Loftus,  Rawlinson,  Layard,  and  others  —  have  been  taken 
into  account.  Dr.  1).  W.  McGee,  lecturer  in  University  College,  Toronto 
(drowned  in  1895  at  the  age  of  twenty-three),  had  nearly  completed  a 
treatise,  Zur  Topographie  Babylons  auf  Grund  der  Urkunden  Nabopa- 
lassars  und  NebuJcadrezars,  which  is  now  in  course  of  publication  in  BA., 
edited  by  Professor  Delitzsch.  The  present  excavations  by  the  German 
expedition  under  Koldewey  promise  to  clear  up  many  unsolved  difficul- 
ties of  the  gravest  kind. 


Cn.  I,  §  10G7  THE   CITY   RENEWED  153 

princes  had  brought  Babylonia  to  its  own  again.  With 
the  inspiration  of  a  swift  and  splendid  access  of  freedom 
and  power,  they  were  eager  to  repair  the  former  devas- 
tations (§  740,  783),  and  make  the  resurgent  capital  the 
centre  of  the  world.  And  stronger  than  mere  political 
motives  in  the  new  kingly  line  was  a  holy  jealousy  for 
the  name  and  dominion  of  Merodach  and  Nebo.  Rival 
deities  must  abdicate  their  thrones  in  the  many-templed 
cities  of  Babylonia  for  the  greater  glory  of  the  gods  of 
Babylon.  What  was  their  loss  was  the  gain  of  Merodach 
and  Nebo  and  of  the  city  of  their  love  and  choice.  Mero- 
dach, indeed,  had  always  been  greater  than  any  single 
name  could  express.  As  patron  of  Babylon  the  great,  he 
was  invested  with  the  attributes  of  the  old  Babylonian 
Bel.  Thus  Bel,  once  worshipped  at  Nippur,  the  most 
ancient  centre  of  the  Semitic  religion,  was  now  resident 
in  the  seat  of  the  world's  empire  as  Bel-Merodach.1 
Thus  it  was  that  in  the  phrase  of  a  Hebrew  prophet 
(Tsa.  xiii.  19)  Babylon  became  "the  glory  of  kingdoms, 
the  proud  adornment  of  Chaldaea." 

§  1057.  Speaking  of  Nebuchadrezzar  Berossus  says  : 
"  He  adorned  the  temple  of  Belus  and  the  other  temples 
in  an  elegant  manner  out  of  the  spoils  he  had  taken  in 
this  war.2  He  also  rebuilt  the  old  city  and  added  another 
to  it  on  the  outside,  and  so  far  restored  Babylon  that 
none  who  might  besiege  it  after  that  time  should  be 
able  to  divert  the  river,  so  as  to  make  an  easier  entrance 
into  the  city.  And  this  he  effected  by  building  three 
walls  about  the  inner  city  and  three  about  the  outer.     So 

1  Cf.  Jensen,  Koamologie,  pp.  lot,  307  ;  Jastrow,  BBA.  i>.  ">i  f..  1 16  S. 
The  identification  of  Bel  and  Merodach  was  as  old  as  the  political  suprem- 
acy of  Babylon  under  Chammurabi  (S  11")  ;  hut  the  absorption  oi  B61 
by  Merodach,  with  a  complete  interchange  of  names,  is  characteristic  of 
the  Chaldaean  era.  The  indirect  effect  upon  Israel  of  this  depreciation 
(if  Nippur  and  its  ••  Bel"  will  be  pointed  ou1  later  (§  1286  f.). 

2 That  is.  the  early  campaign  in  the  West,  interrupted  by  his  father's 
death,  which  Ber08SU8  or  Josephus)  combines  in  one  description  with  the 
liter  operations  in  the  Wi  -i. 


154  THE    CITY    AND   ITS   WALLS  Book  X 

when  he  had  fortified  the  city  with  walls  and  adorned  the 
gates  magnificently,  he  added  a  new  palace  to  that  which 
his  father  had  dwelt  in,  close  by  it  also,  but  loftier  and 
more  splendid.  .  .  .  Immense  and  magnificent  though  it 
was,  it  was  finished  in  fifteen  days.  In  this  palace  he 
erected  very  high  promenades  supported  on  stone  pillars  : 
and  by  planting  what  was  called  a  hanging  garden,  and 
replenishing  it  with  all  sorts  of  trees,  he  made  it  resemble 
exactly  the  scenery  of  a  mountainous  country.  This  he 
did  to  please  his  queen,  because  she  had  been  brought  up 
in  Media,  and  wras  fond  of  mountainous  surroundings." 

§  1058.  The  above  may  serve  as  a  vague  outline  to 
which  some  definiteness  may  be  given  by  details  from  other 
sources.  First,  as  to  the  general  situation  of  the  city. 
It  lay  mainly  on  the  east  or  left  bank  of  the  Euphrates, 
the  most  thickly  settled  portion  occupying  a  space  of 
about  four  miles  across  from  north  to  south  within  the 
irregularly  bending  course  of  the  river,  which  turns  south- 
west, south,  and  east,  and  then  runs  due  south  for  five 
miles,  the  modern  village  of  Hillah  being  three  miles  south 
of  the  easterly  bend.  The  features  of  most  interest  and 
importance  were  the  walls,  the  canals,  the  temples,  and  the 
palace.  The  outer  wall  was  of  enormous  extent.  Accord- 
ing to  Herodotus,  the  city  was  480  stadia  or  55  miles  in 
circumference,  and  this  wall  80  feet  wide.  Alongside 
of  it  ran  a  moat  so  broad  that  no  arrow  could  be  shot  over 
it.1  Above  its  wride  summit  stood  dwellings  of  officials, 
and  between  them  lay  a  street  where  chariots  might  run. 
This  wall,  said  to  be  mountain-high,  was  the  greatest  struc- 
ture known  to  antiquity.  It  was  the  work  of  Nebuchad- 
rezzar and  his  men,  devised  to  make  the  defences  of  the 
city  doubly  sure.  It  was  pierced  with  "a  hundred"  gates 
<it'  bronze.  This  was,  however,  not  the  outermost  obstacle 
to  a  possible  invader.    Eastward  still  was  dug  an  immense 

1  There  were  enclosing  walls  for  this  moat,  which  may  explain  the 
reported  statement  of  Berossus,  quoted  above,  that  there  were  three 
walls  around  the  outer  city. 


Ch.  I,  §  1060  THE    CITY   PROPER  155 


artificial  lake  supplied  by  an  overflow  of  the  Euphrates 
and  by  diverted  affluents  of  canals.  Four  thousand 
cubits  inward  from  the  outer  wall  stretched  the  rampart 
Nemitti-Bel  ("  The  station  of  Bel  '*)  and  the  inner  wall 
Imgur-Bel  ("  Bel  is  propitious").1  This  immense  inter- 
vening space  was  occupied  with  fruit  and  vegetable  gar- 
dens, groves,  suburban  residences,  brick-kilns  and  other 
factories.  The  rampart  and  the  inner  wall  had  been  begun 
by  Nabopalassar  and  were  now  finished  by  Nebuchadrez- 
zar. The  numerous  gates  in  both  of  these  walls  leading 
to  the  city  proper  were  inlaid  with  bronze  and  splendidly 
ornamented.  Between  Nemitti-Bel  and  Imgur-Bel  lay  a 
moat,  itself  enclosed  with  walls  of  no  mean  altitude,  and 
having  its  slopes  completely  bricked. 

§  1059.  In  the  city  itself  the  numerous  streets  ran  at 
right  angles  to  one  another,  as  in  the  most  modern  of  our 
own  towns.  At  the  ends  of  certain  principal  streets  the 
moat  was  bridged  over,  and  bridges  also  spanned  the  chief 
canal  east  of  the  Euphrates,  which  ran  from  north  to 
south  through  the  city.  On  both  banks  of  the  Euphrates 
long  lines  of  quays  received  the  merchandise  of  the 
world,  and  the  river  between  was  thronged  with  boats 
and  barges  of  every  description  known  to  inland  naviga- 
tion (cf.  §  1305).  The  Euphrates  formed  the  main 
western  defence  of  the  city  proper,  but  doubtless  the 
smaller  city  on  the  right  bank  of  the  river  had  its  own 
system  of  fortification.2 

§  1060.  A  colossal  temple  and  the  royal  palace  crowned 
the  work  of  the  Great  King  within  the  walls.  The  great 
temple,  known   in   the   artificial    priestly   terminology  as 

1  Besides  Nebuchadrezzar's  own  Inscriptions,  see  II  R.  50,  20.  21,  a,  b. 
It  was  in  Babylonian  surroundings  that  a  Hebrew  prophet  said  of  the 
ideal  restored  Jerusalem,  "Thou  shalt  call  its  walls  'Salvation,'  and  its 
gates  •  Praise'"  (Isa.  lx.  18). 

2  In  the  time  of  Herodotus  there  was  a  considerable  portion  of  the  city 
mi  the  west  of  ihc  river  (I.  180).  Berossus  (Josephus  against  Apion,  i, 
20)  seems  to  implj  that  new  walls  were  erected  in  the  reign  of  Nabonidus. 
Put  the  inscriptions  of  Nabonidus  say  nothing  of  this. 


156  TEMPLE    AND   TOWER  Book  X 

Esagila  (k>  the  lofty  house  "),*  was  a  very  ancient  struc- 
ture  ami  it  was  the  pride  of  all  the  kings  of  Babylon  to 
keep  it  in  repair  and  beautify  it.  This  temple  and  the 
shrines  of  which  it  was  composed  lie  adorned  with  lavish 
generosity  and  unrivalled  elegance  and  splendour.  The 
temple  proper  resembled  in  arrangement  and  functions 
the  temple  in  Jerusalem,2  but  some  of  the  features  which 
\\ere  distinctly  Babylonian  were  also  of  great  importance 
for  the  history  of  Oriental  religion.  We  can  only  remark 
here  the  threefold  division  of  a  vestibule,  a  long  inner 
court,  and  a  most  holy  place  or  oracle,  entered  ever}-  Xew 
Year's  day  (the  first  of  Nisan)  to  know  the  will  of  Mero- 
dach.  Of  the  appliances  of  the  temple  we  note  particu- 
larly the  chief  altar  in  front,  two  large  columns  at  the 
entrance  to  the  court,3  a  large  basin  or  ''sea"  (ajpsw),  and 
a  ship,  adorned  with  precious  stones,  in  which  Mard.uk 
was  carried  in  festal  procession.4 

§  1061.  Most  characteristic  of  the  chief  Babylonian 
temples  was  a  four-sided  building  called  a  zikkurat  ("high 
tower"'),  which  was  separate  from  the  main  structure, 
though  an  essential  part  of  the  whole  sanctuary.  It  was 
at  Babylon  and  Borsippa  of  seven  stages  corresponding  to 
the  seven  planets  :  Sun,  Moon,  Mercury,  Venus.  Mars, 
Jupiter,  Saturn.  Originally,  however,  it  was  merely  an 
erection  of  indefinite  height  upon  a  mound  or  terrace  — 
the  "high  place"  of  primitive  worship.  While  in  Israel 
and  elsewhere  the  temple  was  a  development  of  the  high 
place   and  its  shrine,  in    Babylonia,  with   its   complex   sys- 

1  Assyr.  bit  elu  (§  117). 

-  See  the  summary  of  the  parts  in  Tiele,  BAG.  p.  444,  and,  for  the 
whole  subjecl  of  Babylonian  temples,  Jastrow,  RBA.  p.  »'>12  ff. 

■;  Found  at  Nippur  ami  Lagash,  and  doubtless  a  feature  of  Babylonian 
temples  generally,  apparently  a  survival  of  a  gateway.    See  RBA.  p.  <'>•-' •")  f. 

4  This  was  a  prominent  feature  of  the  Babylonian  cult.  Each  god  had 
his  own  vessel,  which  had  a  special  name  given  t<>  it.  The  custom  was  a 
survival  from  the  times  when  the  chief  cities  lay  on  the  Persian  Gulf. 
See  RBA.  p.  654  f.  May  it  nol  also  symbolize  the  belief  that  the  ocean 
was  the  ultimate  source  of  the  divine  beings ? 


Ch.  I,  §  10G2  TEMPLE   AREA    AND   PALACE  157 

tem  of  worship,  this  storied  tower  was  the  direct  evolu- 
tion of  the  high  place  itself,  the  other  structures  being 
developed  from  the  shrine  and  its  belongings.  This 
tower  of  gradually  narrowed  stages  was  the  most  impos- 
ing single  feature  of  the  whole  sacred  establishment.1  To 
relieve  its  monotony  enamelled  bricks  of  gorgeous  colours 
were  employed  for  many,  at  least,  of  the  rows.  This  lofty 
structure  had  also  numerous  shrines  attached  to  it,  and 
the  space  between  it  and  the  temple  proper  was  the  gath- 
ering place  of  votaries,  where  stood  the  chief  altars,  and 
where  offerings  were  presented.  Perhaps  in  the  same  re- 
gion were  the  tables  of  the  money-changers,  with  their 
constant  noisy  traffic.  Within  the  sacred  precincts  were 
also  many  chambers  and  separate  buildings  in  which  was 
transacted  the  business,  sacred  and  secular,  of  the  vast 
institution  (cf.  §  1287).  The  whole  temple  area  was 
enclosed  by  a  wall,  which  thus,  in  Babylonia  at  least, 
embraced  a  city  within  a  city. 

§  1062.  To  match  the  grandeur  of  the  city  and  temple 
of  Merodach,  and  to  further  protect  Imgur-Bel,  the  king- 
erected  a  new  palace  alongside  of  Nemitti-Bel  and 
between  the  two  walls,  probably  to  the  north  of  the  tem- 
ple area.  A  terrace  of  490  cubits  in  length  was  prepared, 
and  in  fifteen  days  the  actual  building  of  the  palace  was 
completed.2     It  was  protected  by  a  double  wall  of  brick 

1  At  Borsippa  (§  1063),  where  the  ruins  are  best  preserved,  Sir  Henry 
Rawlinson  reckoned  its  height  at  140  feet,  the  first  stage  being  272  feet 
square  and  the  seventh  20  feet.  In  most  ruined  cities  the  remains  of  these 
structures  are  the  most  prominent  object.  The  minor  temples  had  no 
such  storied  towers,  since  each  of  these  originally  marked  the  site  of  a 
separate  city,  the  founding  of  which  was  an  act  of  worship  i  ^  ins  i.  on  the 
symbolical  idea  of  the  structure,  sit  Kosmologie,  p. 256;  I { ISA.  ]>.  614  If. 

-  This  is  the  statement  of  the  kin-  himself  (Neb.  VIII,  64  f. )  :  "  In  fif- 
teen days  I  completed  its  construction."  Thus  the  account  of  Berossus 
(<;  1057)  is  confirmed.  The  site  of  this  mosl  renowned  of  ancient  pal- 
aces, where  Nebuchadrezzar  lived,  where  Cyrus  held  court,  ami  where 
Alexander  died,  is  generally  held  to  he  el  Kasr,  "  the  palace,"  the  central 
mound  of  the  city  proper  (cf.  Her.  I.  181).  See  the  plan  in  EB.  by 
Mr.  Pinches. 


158  BABYLON   AND   BORSIPPA  Book  X 

and  stone.  The  gates  were  inlaid  with  bronze,  bordered 
with  gold  and  silver,  and  inlaid  with  precious  stones. 
This  palace  he  then  connected  with  the  old  palace  of  his 
lather.  What  he  himself  thought  of  the  structure  we 
learn  from  his  own  words  :  ''That  house  I  made  an  object 
of  admiration  to  be  gazed  at  by  all  mankind.  I  decorated 
it  splendidly.  With  a  prodigality  of  strength  and  with 
the  awe  of  my  majesty  its  walls  are  compassed  round. 
Nm  evil  or  unrighteous  man  doth  enter  it.  The  attack  of 
the  hostile  and  the  unsubmissive  l  I  have  kept  far  from 
the  sides  of  the  citadel  of  Babylon.  The  city  of  Babylon 
I  have  made  as  strong  as  a  wooded  mountain."2 

§  1063.  A  word  must  be  said  of  the  neighbouring  city 
of  Borsippa.  to  the  south,  but  on  the  western  side  of  the 
Euphrates.  This  was  not,  as  was  formerly  thought,  en- 
closed within  the  outer  wall  of  Babylon,  from  winch  its 
own  outer  wall  must  have  lain  at  least  four  miles  distant. 
Its  sacredness  to  Nebuchadrezzar  was  due  to  its  being  the 
proper  seat  of  Xebo,  who  shared  with  Merodach,  from  the 
remotest  times,  the  divine  sovereignty  and  protectorate 
of  the  district  of  Babylon  or  Babylonia  proper.  Its  tem- 
ple town  Ezida  ("the  enduring  house"')3  we  have  already 
spoken  of  (§  1061,  note).  The  king  restored  the  de- 
cayed temple  of  Xebo  and  his  consort  Nana,  renewing 
also  the  temple  tower  with  great  magnificence  and  maj- 
esty. This  famous  structure,  "the  house  of  the  seven 
lights  of  heaven  and  earth  "  (the  planets,  §  1061),  can 
hardly  have  been  the  "tower  of  Babel"  (Gen.  xi.).  This 
phrase  seems  to  be  a  generalized  expression  for  a  great 
city  foundation,  of  which  "Babel"  was  the  type.  The 
tower  of  Babylon  itself  (Esagila,  "the  lofty  house"), 
which  was  probably,  at  least,  as  large  as  that  of  Borsippa,4 

i  la  babil  pani,  "  who  does  not  present  the  face,"  i.e.  refuses  to  appear 
before  the  king  and  do  homage. 

-  Neb.  VIII,  29-14.  a  Assyr.  bit  kenu  (§117). 

-  The  ••  tower  "  of  Sargon  at  Khorsabad  (§  GG7)  was  of  about  the  same 
elevation  as  that  of  Borsippa.     The  identification  of  Borsippa  with  the 


Ch.  I,  §  10C4       THE   LIFE   OF   CITY   AND   PEOPLE  159 


is  more  naturally  to  be  understood.  Borsippa  was  also 
strongly  fortified,  the  king's  concern  for  it  being  scarcely 
less  than  that  which  he  felt  for  Babylon. 

§  1064.  To  get  a  more  adequate  conception  of  Babylon 
as  the  Hebrew  exiles  saw  it,  we  must  think  of  the  mani- 
fold occupations  and  employments  carried  on  in  the  city. 
We  must  imagine  the  warehouses  filled  with  the  products 
of  Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa.  We  must  picture  to  our- 
selves the  manufactories  large  and  small,  each  branch  of 
industry  being  assigned  to  its  own  quarter  or  quarters  of 
the  city.  We  must  visit  in  fancy  the  shops  where  "goodly 
Babylonish  garments  "  and  rich  carpetings  were  offered 
for  sale,  where  the  finest  work  of  the  potter  was  displayed, 
where  precious  unguents  and  perfumes  were  to  be  had, 
where  countless  articles  of  bronze,  of  silver,  of  gold,  and 
of  all  sorts  of  precious  stones,  were  enticingly  set  forth. 
We  must  observe  what  a  number  and  variety  of  clay 
cylinders  and  tablets  were  made  and  sold,  and  realize  that 
we  have  before  us  the  panorama  of  an  Oriental  Athens 
and  Rome  in  one  —  a  place  of  knowledge  and  inquiry; 
of  universal  reading  and  writing ;  of  immense  monetary 
and  property  interests ;  of  system,  law,  and  complex  ad- 
ministration. We  must  have  before  our  mind's  eye  the 
men  of  the  city,  with  their  long  linen  tunics  reaching 
to  the  feet,  their  woollen  mantles,  and  the  short  white 
cape  over  all;  their  thick-soled  sandals,  their  long  hair 
bound  up  into  fillets,  and  their  delicate  perfumes ;  every 
one  of  them  with  a  staff  in  his  hand  carved  with  an  apple, 
a  rose,  a  lily,  an  eagle,  or  some  other  fanciful  device.1 
Finally,  to  understand  what  manner  of  men  the  Baby- 
lonians were  we  must  resort  to  their  temples,  and  see 
how  much  of  their  life  was  attached  to  and  moulded  1>\ 
the  worship  of  their  gods. 

famous  tower  of  Genesis  has  been  favoured  by  the  preservation  of  its 
gigantic  ruins.     But,  according  to  Eerodotua  1 1,  1*1 ),  the  tower  <>f  Baby- 
lon was  one  stadium  square  at  the  base,  that  is,  about  six  hundred  feet. 
1  See  Her.  I,  195. 


CHAPTER    II 

SILENCES   OF   PROPHECY   TILL   THE    CHALD^EAN   EPOCH 

§  1065.  Prophetic  disciples  were  active  during  the 
reign  of  Mauasseh  and  the  Deuteronomic  time  (§  042  >, 
but  prophecy  did  not  cry  aloud.  It  may  have  been  stilled 
in  the  attempt  in  the  former  period.  But  why  did  it  not 
find  a  voice  during  the  latter?1  Was  it  because  it  was 
making-  itself  felt  in  legislation  ?  Not  exactly  ;  for  in 
Deuteronomy  it  was  resounding  in  echoes  and  vibra- 
tions rather  than  in  its  own  fresh,  spontaneous  utterance 
(cf.  §  943,  1012).  Inter  leges  silent  prophetce.  One  figure, 
greater  than  Josiah  or  Hilkiah  or  any  other  contemporary, 
is  missing  from  the  picture  drawn  for  us  of  the  episode  of 
Deuteronomy  and  the  reformation  (§  846  ff.).  Jeremiah, 
the  most  spiritual  of  the  prophets,  and  personally  the 
most  interesting,  had  begun  his  prophetic  career  in  626  B.C. 
(Jer.  i.  1  ),  live  years  before  the  finding  of  the  "book  of 
direction."  Why  did  neither  he  nor  Zephaniah  nor  Hab- 
akkuk  take  part  either  in  the  promulgation  2  of  the  "  law  " 
or  in  the  direction  of  religious  affairs  generally  during 
the  life  of  Josiah  ?  The  fact  itself  is  startling.  The 
great  prophets  of  the  Old  Testament  fill  the  whole  stage 

1  Zephaniah  (§  830)  probably  delivered  his  brief  prophecy  before 
G21  b.c.  Nalium  (§  831  ff.)  confined  himself  almost  entirely  to  Nineveh. 
Jeremiah's  work  under  Josiah  will  be  considered  later  (§  922  ff.). 

-  It  is  usually  supposed  that  in  Jer.  xi.  1-8  the  prophet  is  charged  "to 
make  an  itinerating  mission  in  Judah  for  the  purpose  of  setting  forth 
the  principles  of  Deuteronomy  and  exhorting  men  to  live  accordingly" 
(Driver,  Intr.&  p.  255  ;  cf.  Cheyne,  Jeremiah,  liis  Life  and  Times,  p.  5(5). 
Such  a  commission,  however,  was  out  of  harmony  with  the  vocation  of 
Jeremiah  (§  1066 f.).     The  true  explanation  is  given  in  §  1100. 

100 


Ch.  II,  §  10G6         THE    INDEPENDENT   PROPHET  101 

of  its  action  with  their  substance  or  their  shadow,  and  we 
naturally  associate  them  with  all  that  was  monumental  in 
church  or  state.  The  subject  has  been  glanced  at  already. 
We  have  said  that  they  were  not  professionals  (§  851), 
and  that  they  were  idealists  rather  than  practical  men 
(§  9^3).  But  the  case  demands  somewhat  fuller  notice. 
§  1066.  As  to  the  more  official  character  of  the  work 
of  the  prophets,  we  ma}*  observe  :  (1)  They  were  licensed 
to  preach  and  ordained  to  the  ministry  by  Jehovah  alone, 
and  their  divine  investiture  placed  them  not  only  above 
but  outside  of  the  prophets  of  the  official  or  hereditary 
class.  Moreover,  just  in  proportion  as  the  teaching  of 
the  prophets  concerning  Jehovah  and  his  claims  upon  his 
people  became  purer,  the  prophetic  office  was  more  widely 
separated  from  officialdom  of  any  sort,  from  association 
with  any  class  or  order  of  men.  (2)  Hence  the  true 
prophet  was  an  immediate,  original  force,  unfettered  by 
personal  entanglements.  An  official  position  of  any  kind 
would  detract  from  the  moral  influence  of  the  prophetic 
word.  A  professional  prophet  might  be  suspected  of 
ulterior  motives  in  delivering  his  message,  especially  in 
a  community  where  divining  and  soothsaying  were  in- 
digenous customs.  An  independent  prophet  of  Jehovah 
might  perhaps  be  thought  fanatical  or  fallible,  but  he 
could  never  be  fairly  regarded  as  designing  or  mercenary, 
as  an  intriguer  or  a  conspirator.  (3)  Similarly,  the  word 
of  the  true  prophets,  unlike  that  of  the  professionals,  had 
no  external  validity  or  authority.  It  claimed  simply  to 
be  the  word  of  Jehovah.  Its  speakers  were  neither  the 
slaves  nor  the  agents  of  a  king  or  a  court  or  a  hierarchy. 
The  age  of  Deuteronomy  and  the  succeeding  time  shows 
clearly  the  distinction,  from  this  point  of  view,  between 
them  and  the  prophetic  guilds.  The  prophets  generally 
appear  as  closely  connected  with  the  priests,  and,  indeed, 
in  some  cases,  subject  to  them  (Jer.xx.   2  ;  xxix.   26)  1  ; 

1  Cf.  W.  R.  Smith,  Prophets,  pp.  85,  889. 


162  JEREMIAH    AND   THE    REFORM  Book  X 

and  the  subserviency  of  both  alike  to  the  ruling  forces  in 
the  state  is  notorious.1  The  ministry  of  the  independent 
prophets  was  as  much  a  protest  against  professional  ser- 
vility as  it  was  against  the  tyranny  of  tradition  and 
custom.  Compulsion  was  alien  to  them,  and  persuasion 
was  their  chief  resource. 

§  1067.  We  see  accordingly  how  such  a  man  as  Jeremiah 
stood  aloof  from  the  enforcement  of  the  practical  enact- 
ments of  Deuteronomy.  He  could  not  identify  himself  with 
the  violent  measures  of  repression,  for  that  would  have 
prejudiced  him  with  the  people  who  were,  as  far  as  his 
agency  was  concerned,  to  be  won  over  by  the  genial  meth- 
ods of  moral  inducement.  His  commission  to  proclaim  far 
and  wide  the  penalties  of  the  violation  of  the  moral  law 
(§  1100)  makes  him  a  typical  prophetic  figure,  standing 
out  in  relief  from  the  scenes  of  image-breaking  and  evic- 
tion and  scourging  and  imprisonment  that  marked  the 
practical  operation  of  the  law  of  Deuteronomy.  What  an 
interval  separates  Samuel  (1  Sam.  xv.  26  f.)  or  Elijah 
(1  K.  xviii.  40)  from  Jeremiah  !  The  one  executes  offi- 
cial punishment,  the  other  does  not  even  announce  it. 

§  10G8.  Something  similar  may  be  said  of  his  lack  of 
interest  in  the  other  great  feature  of  the  Deuterono- 
mic  movement — the  reformation  of  ceremonial  worship. 
What  distinguishes  him  here  is  his  noble  disdain  of  ritual 
or  ceremony  as  a  spiritual  or  even  as  a  religious  func- 
tion. This  is  characteristic  of  the  true  prophet  every- 
where. But  Jeremiah  stands  in  the  very  midst  of  the 
idolatry  (ch.  vii.  16  ff.,  31)  which  it  is  the  aim  of  Deuter- 
onomy to  supplant  by  a  centralized  and  more  rigorous 
ceremonial,  and  tells  the  worshippers  that  God  does  not 
care  for  sacrifice  at  all  (vii.  22  f . ;  cf.  §  1094). 

§  1069.   Something    more    startling    still    confronts  us. 

1  A  good  instance  is  afforded  in  the  history  of  Jeremiah  himself.  His 
fellow-townsmen  of  the  priestly  village  of  Anathoth,  who  doubtless  had 
acted  under  Josiah  in  harmony  with  the  Reformation,  actually  attempted 
to  put  him  to  death  under  Josiah*s  successor  (Jer.  xi.  21). 


Ch.  II,  §107  JEREMIAH   AND   JOSLA II  163 

Not  only  did  Jeremiah  stand  aloof  from  the  enforcement 

of  Josiah's  reforms  ;  he  seems  to  have  had  no  official 
dealing's  with  him  at  all.  Yet  eighteen  years  of  his  pro- 
phetic career  had  passed  before  Josiah's  death.  It  is  true 
that  he  must  have  spent  a  part  of  his  time,  especially  in 
the  earlier  years,  in  his  native  Anathoth,  where  he  had  re- 
ceived the  call  to  the  prophetic  office,  and  with  which  he 
continued  to  have  much  to  do  throughout  life  (cf.  xi.  21  ff.; 
xxxii.  7  ff.).  But  his  mission  was  mainly  to  Jerusalem 
(ii.  2  </?.),  and  his  message  was  such  as  to  challenge  the 
attention  of  the  highest  and  lowest  alike.  Moreover, 
Jeremiah,  in  spite  of  his  diffident  sense  of  youthfulness 
(i.  6),  was  little  if  at  all  younger  than  Josiah,  and  in  view 
of  his  commanding  gifts  and  aggressive  ministry  one 
would  expect  that  he  would  hold  a  sort  of  tutelary  rela- 
tion toward  the  young  king.  What  is  perhaps  the  most 
striking  of  all  is  the  fact  that  in  the  extant  prophecies  of 
Jeremiah  there  is  not  a  single  contemporary  personal  allu- 
sion to  Josiah  (see  xxii.  15  ff.).  Could  Josiah  dispense 
with  him  ?  Or,  what  is  much  the  same  thing,  did  he 
merely  tolerate  his  preaching  and  mildly  patronize  him? 
Either  the  one  or  the  other,  it  would  seem. 

§  1070.  Are  we  prepared  for  such  a  conclusion?  Does 
it  shake  our  faith  in  the  theocratic  character  of  Josiah's 
work  of  reform?  Not  necessarily.  God  fulfils  himself 
in  many  ways,  and  for  its  immediate  purpose,  at  least,  the 
scourge  of  Josiah  and  his  priests  was  as  necessary  as  the 
pleadings  and  remonstrances  of  Jeremiah,  and  apparently 
as  effective  within  its  proper  sphere.  And  if  the  king 
moved  in  a  lower  and  narrower  spiritual  sphere  than  that 
of  the  prophet,  we  may  assure  ourselves  thai  he  could  not 
do  otherwise.  We  have  no  evidence  that  he  was  a  man 
after  Jeremiah's  heart,  or  was  deeply  imbued  with  the 
most  advanced  prophetic  spirit.  Was  any  Hebrew  ruler 
of  a  kindred  mind  with  the  truest  prophet  of  his  time? 
We  have  credited  Hezekiah  with  deference  to  the  pro- 
phetic   word    (§    T'.tT),   but    he    did    not    enter   fully    into 


164  PROPHETS    AND    OFFICIALS  Book  X 

the  spirit  of  reform  until  his  chastisement  had  brought 
him  under  the  ascendency  of  Isaiah.  The  case  of  Josiah, 
who.  would  seem  likely  to  be  the  most  amenable  of  all 
kings  to  direct  prophetic  influence,  shows  that  the  inde- 
pendent prophets  were  always  in  advance  of  the  best  au- 
thorities of  their  time.  The  broad  explanation  is  that 
precedent  and  custom,  which  determined  the  occupation  of 
most  of  the  citizens,  ruled  also  in  affairs  of  religion  and 
worship  by  means  of  the  professional  priests  and  prophets, 
who  had  a  powerful  moral  hold  upon  king  and  people 
alike  through  ceremonial  and  legal  prescription.  In  short. 
the  most  enlightened  and  progressive  officials  of  the  nation 
were  able  to  utilize  the  finest  results  of  the  prophetic 
teaching  of  an  earlier  era.  but  could  not  reach  out  be- 
yond them.  The  reformers  under  Josiah  were  not  dis- 
coverers like  the  independent  prophets.  They  were 
inventors,  and  the  king  gave  and  secured  them  their 
patent  rights. 

i;  lull.  What  we  learn  definitely  of  the  relations  of  the 
preaching  prophets  to  t lie  king  and  officials  generally  is 
this  :  That  the  two  spheres  lay  quite  apart  ;  that  the 
prophets  interested  themselves  in  all  parties  and  classes  in 
the  state,  but  only  in  their  moral  and  spiritual  relations  ; 
that  their  function  was  critical  ;  that  they  confined  them- 
selves to  reproof  and  admonition  and  did  not  take  part  in 
theories  or  measures  of  practical  reform.  Hence  while 
they  did  not  inveigh  directly  against  evil  kings,  they  did 
not  enter  into  formal  relations  with  those  of  the  better 
sort.  They  even  exercised  their  oracular  functions  but 
little,  and,  to  do  the  later  kings  justice,  they  troubled 
even  the  greatest  of  the  prophets  very  seldom  by  asking 
their  counsel,  except  in  circumstances  of  extreme  national 
peril.  Even  Josiah.  therefore,  had  little  public  association 
with  Jeremiah,  and  of  private  friendship  between  these 
two  illustrious  Israelites  we  have  no  information. 

§  1072.  There  was  one  apparent  exception  to  the  gen- 
eral  fact  that  prophecy  did  not  concern  itself  with   spe- 


Ch.  II,  §1073       THE   PROPHETS   AND   POLITICS  L65 

cific  public  measures.  Prophecy  took  for  a  special  prov- 
ince the  international  relations  of  Israel.  This,  however, 
is  just  in  accordance  with  its  fundamental  character  as 
shown  in  its  historical  development  (e.g.  §  295 ff.,  ~-o  ff.). 
And  the  active  interest  of  the  prophets  in  international 
matters  was  promoted  by  the  fact  that  as  far  as  moral  influ- 
ence was  concerned  they  here  had  the  field  to  themselves. 
While  reform  in  worship  or  ritual,  or  even  in  outward 
manners,  was  under  the  direction  of  the  priests  and  the 
rulers  of  the  people,  with  the  king  at  their  head,  in  the 
region  of  foreign  adventure  these  national  guides  were 
all  at  sea,  and  especially  incompetent  to  estimate  its 
moral  and  religious  dangers.  This  wider  region  of 
statesmanship  accordingly  fell  to  the   prophets. 

§  1073.  What  the  prophet  Isaiah  dared  and  achieved 
in  this  preeminent  region  forms  one  of  the  most  inspiring, 
and  at  the  same  time  one  of  the  most  fruitful,  themes  of 
Old  Testament  history.  It  might  be  supposed  that  there 
was  also  room  and  occasion  for  prophetic  intervention  and 
counsel  in  the  difficult  and  tragic  situation  which  arose 
toward  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Josiah.  Did  the  tolerance 
of  the  prophets  extend  to  this  critical  point  ?  Perhaps 
the  most  surprising  of  all  the  biblical  silences  of  this  time 
is  the  absence  of  allusion,  direct  or  indirect,  to  the  pro- 
phetic attitude  toward  the  policy  of  the  court  party,  and 
especially  toward  Josiah's  ill-fated  campaign  against  Pha- 
raoh Xecho.  Did  .Josiah  consult  the  prophets  at  all  ? 
What  counsel  did  they  give  him  ?  We  can  hardly  con- 
ceive of  Jeremiah  encouraging  such  aggressive  warfare. 
Where  was  he  at  tins  crisis?  Where  were  Nahum 
and  Zephaniah  and  Habakkuk  ?  Or  did  Josiah  resort 
t<>  the  priests  for  an  oracle?  We  have  perhaps  a  hint 
from  a  distant  source.  The  beautiful  Twentieth  I'salm 
Mas  possibly  composed  on  this  occasion.  It  certainly 
was  not  the  product  of  a  later  time,  for  after  Josiah 
no  king  reigned  in  Israel  who  had  the  divine  approval. 
This  hymn  of  sacrifice  on  the  eve  of  a  campaign  may  very 


16(3  PROPHETS   OF  THE    PERIOD  Book  X 

well  have  been  composed  just  before  the  battle  of  Me- 
giddo.  Celebrating  as  it  docs  a  sacerdotal  function,  it 
represents  a  time  when  the  kingly  authority  and  the 
priestly  service  were  richly  informed  by  the  propheti- 
cal spirit.     Such  a  time  was  that  of  Josiah. 

§  1074.  We  have  now  perhaps  sufficiently  defined  the 
sphere  of  the  genuine  prophets  of  Jehovah,  and  explained 
their  silence  on  what  might  seem  to  be  matters  of  vital 
moment  to  religious  morals.  We  have  also  found  that 
no  public  acts  come  under  their  censure  up  to  the  death 
of  Josiah.  What  concerns  us  at  present  is  the  views  they 
have  placed  on  record  of  the  events  which  culminated  in 
the  first  great  captivity  of  Judah.  There  are  four  pro- 
phetic names  which  give  distinction  to  the  period  from 
Josiah  to  Jehoiachin  :  these  are,  Zephaniah,  Nahum,  Hab- 
akkuk,  and  Jeremiah.  We  have  already  considered  the 
message  of  the  first  two  (§  830-832)  and  have  observed 
that  their  practical  outlook  does  not  extend  beyond  the 
consequences  of  the  destruction  of  Nineveh  (§  1065 
note).  Habakkuk  shares  with  Jeremiah  the  distinction 
of  interpreting  the  career  and  heralding  the  fate  of  the 
Chaldaean  monarchy,  and  of  unfolding  their  significance 
for  Israel  and  the  kingdom  of  Jehovah.  It  will  now  be 
proper  for  us  to  give  a  rapid  summary  of  the  history  up 
to  the  captivity,  and  then  to  try  to  understand  it  in 
the  light  of  the  prophetic  commentary. 


CHAPTER   III 

JUDAH'S    VASSALAGE    TO    THE    CHALDEANS 

§  1075.  Shortly  after  the  battle  of  Carchemish  (§  1043) 
Nebuchadrezzar  received  the  news  of  the  death  of  his 
father,  who  had  already  named  him  as  the  successor  to  the 
throne.  So  strongly  established  in  popular  favour  was  the 
Chaldiean  dynasty  that  when  he  arrived  in  Babylon  to 
make  good  his  claim  he  was  acknowledged  on  all  hands 
as  the  rightful  heir.  The  task  of  relieving  Syria  and  Pal- 
estine of  the  Egyptians  and  their  influence  was  one  which 
required  the  personal  direction  of  the  king,  and  it  could 
not  have  been  long  ere  he  returned  to  the  scene  of  con- 
flict. The  details  of  his  progress  southward  and  the 
retreat  of  the  African  intruders  are  not  known  to  us. 
His  advance,  however,  could  not  have  been  long  delayed. 
Not  to  follow  up  the  victory  by  driving  the  Egyptians  out 
of  Asia  would  have  been  to  invite  the  enemy  to  divide 
the  Westland  with  him,  after  the  fashion  of  the  old 
Hettite  compact  (§  163).  To  delay  would  have  given 
the  Egyptians  time  to  establish  themselves  more  firmly 
than  ever  in  Palestine.  We  accordingly  conclude  that  the 
army  continued  to  operate  in  Syria  during  the  absence 
of  the  king,  and  that  in  the  course  of  the  next  year  (604 
B.C.)  Nebuchadrezzar  himself  appeared  in  Palestine,  and 
received  the.  submission  of  Jehoiakim.  * 

1  This  is  nnt  the  usual  construction,  which  is  based  upon  the  assump- 
tion of  the  correctness  of  the  Dumber  "  three  "  in  the  text  of  -i  K.  xxiv.  1. 
There  it  is  said  that  Jehoiakim  was  the  willing  subject  of  the  Chaldseans 
for  three  years  out  of  the  eleven  of  his  reign.     He  died  in  598  while  in 

167 


168  SUBMISSION   AND   INSURRECTION  Book  X 

§  1  < >7« I.  We  have  every  reason  to  suppose  that  Jehoi- 
akim  offered  no  direct  opposition  to  the  Babylonian 
advance.  In  any  case,  if  he  had  done  so,  he  must 
have  been  promptly  deposed.  It  is  indeed  an  evidence 
of  the  clemency  of  the  new  dictator  that  he  did  not  pro- 
ceed at  once  tn  extreme  measures,  when  he  saw  that  the 
allegiance  of  the  kingdom  of  Judah  was  withheld.  In 
general  he  was  desirous  of  disturbing  as  little  as  possi- 
ble the  already  existing  relations,  the  only  condition  he 
required  anywhere  being  the  acknowledgment  of  his 
sovereignty  and  the  payment  of  the  accustomed  tribute. 
One  perpetual  source  of  suspicion  and  irritation  there 
undoubtedly  was  :  the  proximity  of  Egypt  and  her 
habitual  intrigues  with  the  Palestinian  communities. 
A  projected  or  incipient  insurrection,  or  the  very 
whisper  of  a  conspiracy  aided  and  abetted  there  by 
Egypt,  brought  down  the  wrath  of  the  Chaldsean  over- 
lord, and  then  it  went  hard  indeed  with  the  luckless 
offender. 

§  1077.  It  could,  indeed,  have  been  only  the  expecta- 
tion of  help  from  Egypt  that  encouraged  the  ruling  class 
at  Jerusalem  to  the  act  which  we  have  next  to  record. 
It  was  toward  the  end  of  his  reign  that  Jehoiakim  refused 
to  wear  any  longer  the  yoke  of  subjection.  Of  the  feelings 
of  the  people  toward  the  suzerain  we  are  informed  by 
Jeremiah  (§  1091  ff.).     But  we  do  not  know  all  the  circum- 


rebellion.  and  Nebuchadrezzar  would  thus  seem  not  to  have  become  his 
suzerain  till  002  or  001,  three  or  four  years  after  Carchemish.  Josephus 
goes  so  far  as  to  say  that  the  king  of  Babylon  took  at  once  "all  Syria  as 
far  as  Pelusium,  except  Judah,"  and  that  four  years  later  he  sent  a  great 
army  against  Judah,  which  then  submitted  for  three  years  (Ant.  x.  0,  1). 
All  the  historical  conditions  are  suited  if  we  may  assume  that  "six"' 
i  j"j  i  was  originally  written  and  not  "three"  (b>W).  That  is,  Jehoiakim 
would  have  submitted  from  001  till  ">'.»*,  when  Jerusalem  was  actually 
besieged  by  the  Ohakheans.  Little  light  is  thrown  on  the  question  by 
Dan.  i.  1.  where  the  old  interpreters  have  found  ground  for  assuming  a 
'•  tirsi  captivity"  in  "the  third  year  of  the  reign  of  Jehoiakim."  That 
was,  however,  one  year  before  the  battle  of  Carchemish  ' 


Ch.  Ill,  §  1078      REBELLION  AND  REPRESSION  169 

stances  that  led  to  this  fatal  step.  Most  probably  it  was 
due  to  the  disinclination  of  the  landed  proprietors  and 

independent  classes  generally  to  pay  their  annual  share 
of  the  tribute  due  to  Nebuchadrezzar.  In  the  event  of 
their  refusal  to  provide  the  stated  indemnity,  Jehoiakim 
had  no  resource  but  to  deliver  up  the  royal  treasures,  or 
to  despoil  the  temple  of  its  revenues  or  its  adornments. 
Impoverishment,  if  such  really  threatened  him  and  his 
people,  was,  however,  to  be  preferred  to  the  certain  ruin 
which  unaided  rebellion  would  entail  upon  them.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  expectation  of  help  from  Egypt  was,  to  the 
people  of  Judah,  not  so  unreasonable  as  it  appears  to  us. 
The  new  Chaldeean  empire,  victorious  though  it  had  been, 
was  still  without  the  prestige  of  long-established  renown. 
Nor  could  the  ordinary  observer  realize  that  it  had 
inherited  the  genius  and  power  of  old  Assyria.  More- 
over. Egypt  had  all  the  advantage  of  being  an  aggressive 
neighbour,  whose  interest  lay  in  keeping  the  Chaldseans 
at  a  distance  from  her  border. 

§  1078.  The  mode  of  repression  adopted  by  Nebuchad- 
rezzar showed  an  advance  in  military  methods  beyond 
that  employed  by  the  Assyrian  overlords.  To  harass 
and  impoverish  the  open  country  he  put  in  commission 
the  irregular  warriors  of  the  half-nomadic  peoples  of  the 
cast  of  Judah,1  —  Aramaeans,  Ammonites,  and  Moabites 
(2  K.  xxiv.  2).  Though  accustomed  to  forage  and  border 
raids,  they  had  been  restrained  from  such  incursions  during 
the  good  conduct  of  the  people  of  Judah.  Hence  their 
employment  against  them  as  rebels  to  the  central  authority 
added  a  twofold  terror  to  the  unequal  si  rife.  Behind  these 
came  the  troops  of  the  regular  army.  How  Long  the  war 
lasted  we  cannot  tell  with  exactness.  We  know  that  it 
came  to  an  end  in  507  B.C.     But  before  its  close,  Jehoiakim, 


1  The  enmity  of  border  tribes  contributed  much  to  the  disasters  and 
humiliation  of  the  closing  days  of  the  Judaic  monarchy.  See  Ps.  cxzzvii.  7  ; 
Jer.  xii.  14;  Obadiah  ;  Micah  vii.  8. 


170  SURRENDER    AND    DEPORTATION  Rook  X 

whose  life  and  liberty  were  forfeit,1  died  in  Jerusalem 
[■2   K.   xxiv.   6). 

§  1079.  Jehoiachin,  the  son  of  Jehoiakim,  -was  now 
placed  upon  the  throne  by  the  court  party,  who  still  dared 
to  hold  out  against  the  Babylonian  assault.  He  was  but 
eighteen  when  his  father  died,  and  three  short  months 
sealed  the  fate  of  the  hapless  youth  called  thus  early  to 
this  forlorn  hope.  Scarcely  had  he  ascended  his  tottering 
throne  when  the  Great  King  himself  appeared  with  his 
army  before  the  city.  What  injury  he  had  wrought  upon 
the  surrounding  country  we  cannot  say.  Probably  it  suf- 
fered less  from  the  imperial  troops  than  from  the  raiders  of 
the  border;  for  Nebuchadrezzar  was  no  Sinacherib,  and  did 
not  indulge  in  savage  and  wanton  destruction.  When 
further  resistance  was  seen  to  be  useless,  the  young  king- 
appeared  outside  the  Avails  with  his  widowed  mother  and 
all  the  officers  of  his  court  and  surrendered  at  discretion 
(2  K.  xxiv.  8  ff.  ;  cf.  Jer.  xxii.  24  ff.;   Ezek.  xix.  8  f.). 

§  1080.  The  chastisement  of  the  insurgent  state  was 
severe  and  effective,  though  the  loss  of  population  was 
numerically  not  very  great.  The  purpose  of  punishment 
for  rebellion  under  the  Assyrian  regime  had  usually  been 
to  intimidate  from  further  revolt  by  remorseless  severity. 
The  Chaldsean  policy  aimed  in  this  instance  to  discourage 
any  further  insurrection  by  making  it  physically  difficult  — 
by  depriving  any  future  seditious  movement  both  of  leaders 
and  resources.  The  captives,  who  numbered  in  all  about 
ten  thousand,  were  divided  into  three  classes,  the  nobles  or 
the  officials  and  courtiers  of  the  capital,  the  princes  or  heads 

1  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  point  out  that  the  apparent  harshness  of 
Nebuchadrezzar  implied  no  departure  from  the  regular  procedure  toward 
vassal  states  described  in  an  earlier  chapter  (§  285  ff.).  The  fact  that 
Judah  did  not  submit  at  once  after  the  defeat  of  the  Egyptians,  he  had 
already  overlooked  (§  1076).  That  the  punishment  of  rebellion  upon 
second  probation  was  so  severe  was  apparently  due  to  the  presumptive 
intriguing  with  Egypt.  It  is  needless  to  remind  the  reader  that  the  sub- 
jects of  Assyria  were  regarded  by  Nebuchadrezzar  as  legitimately  his 
own,  and  that  their  submission  was  expected  as  a  matter  of  course. 


Ch.  Ill,  §  1081  JEIIOIACIIIX    IN    EXILE  171 

of  the  local  communities  (§  536),  and  the  skilled  artisans 
(2  K.  xxiv.  14).1  The  money  indemnity  was  paid  in  due 
course,  and  was  provided  from  the  royal  treasures  and  the 
utensils  and  ornaments  of  the  temple,  most  of  which  had 
been  spared  since  the  days  of  Solomon.  The  sacred  vessels, 
being  of  no  particular  use  as  such  to  the  Great  King1,  and 
being  also  mostly  of  inconvenient  size,  were  broken  up  for 
the  melting-pot  (v.  13). 

§  1081.  Jehoiachin  was  made  a  close  prisoner  for  life  ; 
and  thus,  in  less  than  a  decade,  there  was  afforded  the 
spectacle  of  one  Hebrew  king  led  captive  to  Egypt  and  an- 
other carried  away  to  Babylon.  His  final  fate  is  recorded 
with  unusual  minuteness  (  2  K.  xxv.  27  ff.).  Of  his  inter- 
vening experience  we  know  nothing  except  that  several 
children  were  born  to  him  in  captivity  (1  Chr.  iii.  17  f.). 
Imprisonment,  as  a  rule,  did  not  mean  the  destruction  of 
family  and  domestic  life.  After  thirty-seven  years,  on  the 
accession  of  Evil-Merodach  ( §  13(39)  in  560,  he  was  not 
only  given  his  liberty,  but  in  compensation  for  his  long 
restraint  was  made  a  member  of  the  king's  household, 
enjoying  his  favour  and  bounty  till  death  put  an  end  to 
his  checkered  career  (Jer.  xxii.  2(3,  30).  The  bulk  of  the 
people  were  carried  away  to  a  thinly  settled  district  by 
tin-  Kebar,  a  canal  near  Nippur  (§  1272),  in  northern 
Babylonia.  This  unique  settlement,  of  which  the  prophet 
Ezekiel  was  one  of  the  most  influential  members,  will  soon 
require  our  attention  again.  Here  we  must  pause  for  a 
little  to  hear  the  comment  of  the  prophets  upon  these 
stirring  events.  The  story  itself  has  not  yet  been  half 
told;  for  its  leading  incidents  and  characters  can  only 
be  fairly  understood  in  the  light  that  falls  upon  them 
from  the  prophetic  record. 

1  l  tiic  might  infer  from  the  language  of  the  reeord  that  '-all''  of  the 
available  spoil,  animate  and  inanimate,  was  deported  to  Babylon,  lint 
the  comprehensive  phrase  designates  merely  a  large  Dumber,  according 

to  familiar  Hebrew  literary  usage.     The  depletion  was  serious,  but    by  no 

means  general,  as  we  learn  from  the  subsequent  history. 


CHAPTER   IV 

JEREMIAH   AND    THE   COMING    OF   THE   CHALDEANS 

§  1082.  Jeremiah  is  almost  wholly  a  prophet  of  the 
Chaldaean  era.  There  is  little  or  nothing  in  his  extant 
works  which  can  be  directly  connected  with  an  earlier 
time.  Jeremiah  was  as  little  an  historian  as  might  be,  and 
what  he  reproduced  of  his  earlier  utterances  in  604  B.C., 
twenty-two  years  after  his  call  to  the  prophetic  office 
(Jer.  xxxvi.  32  ),  was  so  intermingled  and  overlaid  with 
thoughts  and  interests  of  the  present  as  to  be  seldom  dis- 
tinguishable.1    Even  the  greatest  political  event  of  his 

1  As  is  well  known,  the  book  of  Jeremiah  is  in  more  disorder  than  any 
other  prophetical  work  of  the  Old  Testament.  The  two  main  recensions, 
that  nt  the  Massoretic  text  and  that  of  the  Septuagint,  differ  greatly  both 
as  regards  the  text  itself  and  in  tin-  order  of  the  several  prophecies.  The 
subject  cannot  even  be  touched  upon  here;  the  reader  must  turn  to 
Driver's  Introduction  and  to  special  treatises.  Fortunately,  the  substance 
of  tin'  bunk  is  little  affected  by  the  variations,  though,  as  far  as  mere  bulk 
is  concerned,  the  Septuagint  is  the  shorter  by  about  one-eighth. 

A-  our  business  is  mainly  historical,  we  are  not  so  much  concerned 
with  the  order  of  the  writing  down  or  the  publication  of  the  several 
prophecies,  as  with  the  order  of  the  events  in  connection  with  which  they 
wen-  respectively  written.  —  two  things  which,  in  the  book  of  Jeremiah, 
are  by  no  means  identical.  As  a  guide  to  the  reader,  a  preliminary 
explanation  is  necessary  on  but  one  point.  According  to  Jer.  xxxvi.  4, 
Baruch,  at  the  dictation  of  Jeremiah,  wrote  down  the  prophecies  which 
had  been  delivered  up  to  that  date,  G05  b.c,  or  the  fourth  year  of 
Jehoiakim  (xxxvi.  1).  And  according  to  xxxvi.  32,  after  the  burning  of 
the  roll  by  Jehoiakim  in  his  fifth  year  (xxxvi.  9),  or  604  B.C.,  Baruch 
took  down  in  like  fashion  the  contents  of  the  original  roll,  and  -'there 
were  added  besides  unto  them  very  many  words.1'  When  we  come  to 
inquire  what  things  were  said  or  done  by  .Jeremiah  up  to  December.  004, 
v.  e  iind  that  in  the  book  itself  there  are  three  distinct  sources  :   (1)  a  con- 

172 


Ch.  IV,  §  1083  EARLIEST  DISCOURSES  173 

early  ministry,  the  inroad  of  the  Scythians,  is  not  plainly 
alluded  to  (§  813).  He  makes  no  direct  allusion  to  the 
reformation  of  Josiah,  the  most  important  religious  move- 
ment of  the  first  half  of  his  life  (§  1065),  nor  yet  to 
the  death  of  that  monarch,  the  catastrophe  which  revo- 
lutionized Israel  and  his  own  career  (§  1069).  The  first 
event  to  which  he  makes  unmistakable  reference  is  the 
banishment  of  Jehoahaz  (xxii.  10-12  ;  §  1039)  ;  but  his 
utterance  was  not  written  down  till  the  reign  of  Zedekiah 
(cf.  §  1143).  We  are  forced  to  the  conclusion  that  our 
prophet  was  an  entirely  subordinate  figure  in  Israel  until 
the  Egyptian  and  Chaldsean  epoch.  That  he  should  have 
ignored  the  events  of  his  earlier  and  most  impressionable 
years  is  unthinkable  if  these  occurrences  had  coloured  his 
thought  or  enlisted  his  interference.  The  same  general 
conclusion  has  already  been  reached  in  our  stud)-  of  the 
specific  function  of  the  prophets  (§  1069  ff.). 

§  1083.  Indeed,  we  may  be  reasonably  sure  of  the  time 
when  Jeremiah  made  his  first  authoritative  appeal  to  the 
conscience  of  his  people.  If  chapters  ii.  and  iii.  rep- 
resent in  part  his  first  extant  discourse,  as  is  generally 
supposed,  we  learn  from  it  directly  what  we  are  seeking. 
They  were  given  out  at  a  time  when  Egypt  was  the  riding 
influence  in  Judah.  One  of  the  references  is  general  : 
"And  now,  what  hast  thou  to  do  with  the  way  to  Egypt 
to  drink  the  waters  of  the  Nile?  or  what  hast  thou  to  do 
with  the  way  to  Assyria,  to  drink  the  waters  of  the  Eu- 
phrates?" (ii.  18).  The  other  is  specific :  "Thou  shalt  be 
disappointed  in  Egypt,  as  thou  wcrt   disappointed  in  As- 

nected  series  of  discourses,  substantially  chs.  i.-x..  with  no  special  nota- 
tion of  time  or  circumstance;  (2)  another  set  of  discourses  with  the 
occasions  or  conditions  stilted  or  indicated,  chs.  xi.,  xii.,  xviii.,  xxv.,  xlvi.- 
xlix.;  (3)  a  briefer  group,  mainly  biographical,  apparently  written  after 
the  death  of  Jeremiah,  chs.  six.,  xx..  xxvi.,  xxxvi..  xlv.  From  these  three 
collections  we  shall  have  to  make  our  citations  as  the  order  of  events  may 
demand.  It  is  worth  inquiring  whether  group  (1)  does  nol  contain  whal 
Baruch  rewrote  in  December,  004,  and  group  (2)  the  substance,  at  least, 
of  the  "  very  many  words"  which  ••  were  added  besides  unto  them." 


174  OCCASION   OF   PUBLIC   APPEARANCE  Book  X 

Syria  "  (ii.  36).  The  only  occasion  suitable  for  such  utter- 
ances was  the  time  after  the  battle  of  Megiddo  in  what 
mighl  be  called  the  Egyptian  interregnum,  when  also  he 
uttered  the  lament  over  Jehoahaz  (§  1039),  who  was 
dethroned  and  exiled  by  Pharaoh  Necho.  At  no  time 
during  the  latter  half  of  Josiah's  reign  was  there  any  need 
of  negotiations  with  Egypt,  nor  can  there  have  been  any 
political  occasion  of  seeking  help  in  that  quarter.  During 
the  latest  years  of  Josiah  the  relations  were  actually  hostile. 
A  third  passage  would  be  absolutely  conclusive,  if  it  were 
not  questionable  whether  it  properly  belongs  to  this  dis- 
course or  not,  since  the  section  in  which  it  occurs  inter- 
rupts the  course  of  the  argument.1  It  runs  thus :  "  The  sons 
of  Noph  and  Tahpanhes  break  the  crown  of  thy  head,"  fol- 
lowing up  the  words:  "His  [Israel's]  cities  are  burned 
up  and  are  without  inhabitant  "  (ii.  15  f.). 

§  1084.  Why  then  was  it  not  till  605  B.C.  that  Jeremiah 
committed  any  of  his  discourses  to  writing  ?  Because  in 
the  days  of  Josiah  he  was  only  a  preaching  not  a  liter- 
ary prophet,  and  if  he  had  died  with  Josiah,  we  would 
have  had  no  knowledge  of  him  whatever,  not  even  of 
his  name.  The  conclusion  just  reached  suggests  some 
practical  observations.  We  now  have  a  satisfactory  expla- 
nation not  only  of  the  silences  of  Jeremiah  for  the  earlier 
years  of  his  ministry,  but  also  of  his  sudden  and  startling 
appearance  in  605  B.C.  It  cannot  be  too  clearly  understood 
that  none  of  the  literary  prophets  made  their  record  on 
merely  domestic  or  local  issues  (cf.  §  1072).  In  propor- 
tion to  the  magnitude  of  the  international  issue  prophecy 
itself  became  of  importance.  This  has  been  sufficiently 
illustrated  by  the  various  phases  of  the  complications  with 
Assyria.  Now  that  the  petty  role  of  Egypt  in  Palestine 
is  being  abolished  by  Nebuchadrezzar  (Jer.  xlvi.  2),  and 

1  Sec  Cornill,  The  Book  of  Jeremiah  in  Hebrew  (SBOT.),  p.  67.  It 
seems  to  be  admitted  that  Jeremiah  himself  is  the  author  of  the  interpo- 
lated passage.  He  must,  then,  have  inserted  it  as  an  additional  illustration 
of  the  state  of  things  .set  forth  in  the  main  discourse. 


Cii.  IV,  §  1086  POLITICAL   CONDITIONS  175 

the  larger  Chakkean  sovereignty  comes  before  the  prophet's 
mind,  he  is  called  to  give  a  more  memorable  message. 
We  can  also  now  account  for  the  vagueness  of  Jeremiah's 
allusions  to  the  eventful  time  of  Josiah.  The  usual  sup- 
position is  that  the  earlier  chapters  of  the  book  have 
these  prior  events  as  their  substratum,  and  that  their  in- 
definiteness  is  due  to  the  original  discourses  having  been 
repeated  from  memory.  It  is  more  correct  to  say  that  his 
earlier  sermons  were  in  the  very  nature  of  the  case  of 
comparatively  little  importance  and  hence  were  not  re- 
corded at  the  time. 

§  1085.  Having  thus  found  the  historical  setting  of  Jere- 
miah's earliest  literary  productions,  we  may  now  follow 
more  intelligently  the  most  luminous  points  of  his  public 
career.  In  the  opening  series  of  his  written  prophecies 
there  are  three  principal  determining  political  conditions. 
The  first  is  the  Egyptian  domination ;  the  second  is  the 
situation  created  by  the  Chaldsean  triumph  at  Carchemish  ; 
the  third  is  the  expected  descent  of  the  Babylonian  forces 
upon  Judah.  The  last  named  coincides  with  the  occasion 
of  the  book  of  Habakkuk  (§  1130),  and  thus  furnishes  a 
fine  opportunity  of  comparing  the  respective  points  of  view 
and  ruling  motives  of  those  master  spirits  of  prophecy. 
As  to  Jeremiah  himself,  we  cannot  but  observe  how, 
from  this  epoch  onward,  his  discourses  become  constantly 
clearer,  deeper,  and  wider,  and  how,  at  the  same  time,  the 
purpose  and  character  of  his  life  are  more  fully  disclosed. 

§  1086.  Jeremiah's  first  written  discourse  (ii.  1-iv.  4)1 
reveals  eloquently  the  religious  and  political  condition  of 
Judah  after  the  revolution  brought  on  by  the  death  of 
Josiah.  It  must  have  been  delivered  shortly  after  the 
accession  of  Jehoiakim,  608  B.C.  In  its  literary  form 
we  find  the  substance  of  several  distinct  addresses,  which 
the  author,  and  Baruch  his  scribe   (xxxvi.   4),   made   up 

1  That  is,  with  the  exception  of  iii.  6-18,  which  is  now  generally 
admitted  to  be  out  of  place.  Cornill  (The  Book  of  J<  remiah  in  II,  brew, 
1895,  p.  45)  drops  iv.  1,2;  iv.  10  he' also  rejects. 


176  CHARGE  OF  APOSTASY  Book  X 

into  one  continuous  composition.  The  whole  discourse 
is  a  complaint  on  two  main  grounds:  religiously  Judah 
lias  been  guilty  of  apostasy  from  .Jehovah  ;  politically  it 
lias  committed  folly  in  consorting  with  Egypt.  The  head 
and  front  of  the  offending  in  both  cases  is  inconstancy 
and  treachery.  The  moral  and  religious  situation  is 
naturally  made  most  of.  Doubtless  the  contrast  with  the 
days  of  Josiah,1  when  all  forms  of  false  worship  were  at 
least  publicly  and  legally  discountenanced  and  made  a 
capital  offence,  gives  point  and  emphasis  to  the  charges  ; 
but  perhaps  nowhere  in  Prophecy  is  the  degeneration  of 
a  people  so  realistically  and  powerfully  set  forth.  Apos- 
tasy  from  Jehovah  is  declared  to  be  in  a  sense  treason  to 
human  nature  (ii.  10-12).  No  island  or  continent,2  the 
world  itself,  has  ever  seen  the  like.  Every  land,  every 
people,  has  and  keeps  its  own  god.  "See  if  there  has 
been  anything  like  this.  Hath  any  nation  made  a  change 
of  gods  which  are  yet  not  God?  But  my  people  have 
exchanged  their  glory  for  what  is  worthless,  lie  aston- 
ished at  this,  oh  heavens!   shudder  and  wither  up." 

§  1087.  This  religious  aspect  of  the  popular  infidelity 
looms  so  large  before  Jeremiah  that  we  must  read  be- 
tween the  lines  to  find  out  the  national  situation.  His 
people  are  clearly  in  some  adversity  from  which  their 
assiduous  cultivation  of  the  false  deities  can  not  and  shall 
not  deliver  them  :  "Where  are  thy  gods,  which  thou  hast 
made  for  thyself?  Let  them  rise  up  if  they  would  save 
thee   in   the  time  of  thy  misfortune  ;   for  as  the  number 

1  These  chapters  cannot  have  as  their  historical  basis  the  time  of  Josiah. 
It  is  conceivable  and  probable  that  reminiscences  of  the  former  period  and 
its  discourses  are  found  here  (e.g.  hi.  1!)).  Ch.  iii.  (5-18  is  avowedly  a 
reproduction  of  a  discourse  of  that  period.  But  there  the  complaint  is 
general,  and  is  couched  in  die  somewhat  stereotyped  language  of  pro- 
phetic  accusation.  Here  the  charges  are  various,  minute,  and  specific, 
and  reveal  a  condition  of  things  simply  impossible  under  Josiah. 

-  Represented  by  Chittim  (§  42)  and  Kedar  (§  787).  A  striking  in- 
stance  of  the  synecdoche  which  is  one  of  the  most  characteristic  features 
of  Hebrew  rhetoric. 


Ch.  IV,  §  1088      EGYPTIANS   AND   CIIALD.EAXS  177 

of  thy  cities  have  been  thy  gods,  oh  Juclah ! "  (ii.  28). 
The  trouble,  we  apprehend,  is  that  which  followed  the 
death  of  Josiah:  the  deposition  and  captivity  of  Jehoahaz, 
the  vassalage  of  Jehoiakim,  and  the  uncertainty  of  the 
fate  of  the  country  in  view  of  the  aggressive  and  rising 
Chakhean  power.  One  thing,  at  least,  was  very  clear  to 
the  prophet,  as  to  his  predecessors,  that  nothing  was  to 
be  gained  by  relying  upon  Egyptian  protection.  "  How 
dost  thou  change  thy  course  so  very  lightly  ? 1  Thou 
shalt  be  disappointed  in  Egypt,  as  thou  wast  disap- 
pointed in  Assyria"  (ii.  3G).  And  yet  like  Habakkuk 
(§  1135),  near  the  same  date,  Jeremiah  here  insists  that, 
though  Israel  must  be  punished  for  its  sin,  the  instru- 
ments of  that  chastisement  shall  be  held  to  account  for 
that  same  providential  work  which  they  are  commissioned 
to  perform.  "  Israel  is  sacred  to  me,  and  the  first  fruits 
of  his  increase.  All  that  devour  him  shall  be  held  guilty, 
evil  shall  come  upon  them,  saith  Jehovah"  (ii.  3). 

§  1088.  The  second  subject  of  prophetic  comment  in 
this  series  of  discourses  is  the  ensuing  conflict  between 
the  Egyptian  and  Chaldsean  forces  at  Carchemish  (605 
B.C.).  Jeremiah's  celebration  of  the  downfall  of  the 
Asiatic  empire  of  Egypt  (Jer.  xlvi.  3-12)  is  one  of  the 
most  poetical  of  his  compositions  and  assumes  the  form 
of  a  triumphal  ode.  It  is  easy  to  understand  the  feelings 
of  the  author.  To  every  true  prophet  Egypt  was  an 
object  of  aversion  often  mixed  with  contempt.  Jeremiah 
saw  on  the  one  side  the  hollowness  of  its  pretensions,  and 
the  certainty  of  its  demolition  whenever  the  Chaldsean 
power,  "the  hammer  of  the  whole  earth"  (.Jer.  1.  23) 
should  strike  it  full  and  hard.  On  the  oilier  side,  he 
beheld  with  indignation  the  spectacle  of  his  people  rely- 
ing upon  the  friendship  of  Egypt,  and,  what  was  far 
worse,  welcoming  as  counsellor  and  protector  the  ruler 
that  had  struck  down  the  patriot  Josiah. 

1  Head  "fya  (sLr)  with  Giesebreeht  after  the  Sept.  Literally:  "How 
dost  thou  make  so  very  light  of  changing  thy  cuur.se  ?  " 


178  ODE   OF   CARCHEMISH  Book  X 

§  1089.  The  poem  speaks  for  itself.  It  has  all  the 
energy  but  none  of  the  obscurity  of  its  prototypes,  the 
old  battle-songs  of  Israel.  It  has,  however,  much  of  their 
implacable  and  vengeful  spirit,  a  spirit  inseparable  from 
the  desperate  struggles  with  foes  equally  remorseless  and 
more  powerful,  which  moulded  both  the  history  and  the 
temper  of  the  Hebrews.  It  begins  with  a  derisive  sum- 
mons to  the  usurpers  of  the  sovereignty  of  Asia  to  furbish 
up  their  weapons,  don  their  armour,  and  rush  into  the 
light  (xlvi.  3,  4).  But  this  is  only  a  reminiscence  of  the 
vast  array  that  went  proudly  into  battle  ;  for  the  conflict 
is  already  over  :  the  field  all  bestrewn  with  fallen  warriors 
is  abandoned  in  terror  (vs.  5,  G).  Then  follows  a  fine 
Homeric  figure.  "Who  is  this  that  rises  high  like  the 
Nile,  whose  waters  heave  like  the  rivers?  Egypt  rises 
high  like  the  Nile,  and  his  waters  heave  like  the  rivers. 
He  saith,  I  will  rise  high,  I  will  overspread  the  land  ;  I 
will  destroy  the  cities  and  their  inhabitants "  (vs.  7,  8). 
This  overweening  boastfulness  evokes  another  challenge 
from  the  prophet,  who  calls  for  the  horses  and  chariots 
that  were  the  ancient  pride  of  the  Egyptian  army,  and 
bids  the  mercenary  troops  take  the  field  with  them  :  the 
Ethiopians  (Cush),  the  Abyssinians1  (Put),  and  the 
Libyans2  (Lubim).  The  expected  march  to  victory  will, 
however,  turn  out  to  be  a  going  forth  to  defeat  and  death. 
It  is  Jehovah  whom  the  Egyptians  shall  meet  at  Car- 
chemish,  and  his  sword  shall  be  satiated  with  their  blood, 
the  only  sacrifice  that  will  appease  his  vengeance  (v.  10). 
The  blow  thus  falling  upon  Egypt  will  be  fatal,  the  wound 
incurable  beyond  easing  by  the  balm  of  Gilead,  or  healing 

1  This  name  is  used  here  for  Put  for  want  of  a  better  word.  Accord- 
ing to  W.  Max  M  idler.  Asien  "//</  Europa,  pp.  106-120,  their  country  would 
seem  to  have  lain  north  of  Abyssinia  along  the  Red  Sea.  Egyptian  Punt 
is  South  Arabia,  whence  come  the  Abyssinians.  It  is  seductive  that  the 
original  Egyptian  name  of  the  people,  Chabet,  is  so  similar  to  Chdbesh, 
"Abyssinia." 

2  Read  here  and  Gen.  x.  1.°,  Lubim  for  Ludim.  The  Lydian  mercena- 
ries were  not  a  permanent  auxiliary  of  Egypt,  like  the  Libyans  (§  345) . 


Ch.  IV,  §  1091     FORECAST   OF  THE   CHALD.EANS  179 

by  any  medicine  (v.  11).  The  cry  of  Egypt  is  heard 
over  all  the  earth,  and  with  it  goes  everywhere  her  shame 
and  reproach  among  the  nations  (v.  12). 

§  101*0.  Such  were  Jeremiah's  sentiments  as  to  the 
Egyptians  and  their  fate.  What  was  his  forecast  of  their 
successful  rivals  ?  His  words  regarding  the  Chaldieans 
furnish  a  much  better  test  of  his  prophetic  insight  and 
foresight.  The  fortune  of  the  Egyptians  was  not  beyond 
the  outlook  of  a  shrewd  observer.  In  any  case  in  deal- 
ing with  the  Egyptians  he  had  to  do  with  merely  nega- 
tive results.  Their  power  was  broken,  and  Palestine  and 
Syria  would  soon  see  the  last  of  them.  But  to  cast  the 
horoscope  of  the  new  and  adventurous  Chakhcan  empire 
required  a  true  vision  of  coming  realities  from  a  loftier 
standpoint.  Jeremiah,  however,  shrinks  back  from  no 
pinnacle  or  steep  of  the  divine  ascent,  and  from  the  height 
of  prevision  which  he  now  attains  he  never  after  descends. 
One  may  say,  indeed,  that  upon  the  all-important  question 
of  the  relations  of  the  Chakhean  monarchy  to  his  own 
people  he  gained  no  essentially  new  light  to  the  end  of 
his  days.  From  the  beginning  he  accepted  all  the  horror 
and  shame  of  his  country's  probable  ruin  as  a  matter  of 
divine  and  necessary  right.  The  future  had  no  great  sur- 
prises for  him,  though  many  a  bitter  disappointment.1 

§  1091.  The  third  subject  which  engaged  the  atten- 
tion of  Jeremiah  at  this  eventful  period  (§  1085)  is  accord- 
ingly the  expected  descent  of  the  Babylonians  upon  Judah. 
It  is  alluded  to  in  the  second  of  those  discourses  contained 
in  the  summary  destroyed  by  Jehoiakim  and  rewritten 
by  Baruch  (§  1082  note),  that  is,  in  Jer.  iv.  5  —  vi.  30. 
In  chapter  xxvi.  it  is  thrust  upon  public  attention  as  a 
practical  question,  though,  as  far  as  we  know,  the  invaders 
or  their  leader  are  not  mentioned  by  name  till  after  the 

1  Like  other  large  and  sensitive  souls,  Jeremiah  met  (lie  greater 
calamities  ami  decisive  strokes  of  fortune  with  calm  serenity,  while  lie 
was  perpetually  tortured  by  the  wear  and  tear  of  the  daily  struggles  and 
vexations  incident  to  them. 


180  A    PUBLIC    ARRAIGNMENT  Book  X 

battle  of  Carchemish.  The  former  passage  (iv.  5  ft'.), 
while  containing  a  summary  of  the  offences  charged 
against  Israel  during  the  whole  preceding  portion  of  the 
pn>phct*s  ministry,  has  for  its  more  direct  object  to  point 
out  t<>  the  people  the  specific  form  in  which  their  sin  is  to 
be  punished.  The  agents  were  to  be  a  people  from  the 
north  ( iv.  0,  15;  vi.  1,  22;  cf.  xxv.  9).  The  Hebrews 
knew  little  about  the  exact  relative  position  of  distant 
nations.  Babylon  was  almost  due  east  from  Jerusalem, 
but  Jeremiah  was  thinking  of  the  fact  that  the  great  in- 
vading armies  of  the  past  had  come  by  way  of  the  north, 
notably  the  destroying  Assyrians;  and  he  knew  that  the 
army  which  was  predestined  to  put  an  end  to  the  Egyp- 
tian sovereignty  was  soon  to  cross  the  Euphrates,  and 
descend  from  the  north  upon  Syria  and  Palestine.  We 
may  add  to  this  what  is  recorded  in  chapter  xxvi.  4-ii.  to 
the  effect  that  Jerusalem  wa.s,  for  its  sins,  to  be  made 
desolate  like  Shiloh  (§  1093,  cf.  §  490). 

§  1092.  We  are  now  at  the  threshold  of  Jeremiah's 
memorable  struggle  with  the  ruling  classes  among  his 
own  people.  Let  us  look  at  the  parties  and  the  issues  in 
the  light  of  the  leading  incidents.  We  turn  to  the  nar- 
ration in  chapter  xxvi.  7  ff.  The  story  opens  (xxvi.  7) 
with  a  scene  assigned  to  "  the  beginning  of  the  reign  of 
Jehoiakim."  a  vague  expression  which  apparently  includes 
the  regnal  period  up  to  G05  B.C.  The  narrator  does  not 
go  behind  the  actual  events,  but  lets  the  story  speak  for 
itself.  The  prophet  appears  at  one  of  the  great  annual 
feasts,  and  gathering  up  his  former  complaints  and  appeals 
into  one  terrible  warning,  he  declares  that  not  only  the 
holy  city  but  the  temple  itself  shall  be  destroyed  and 
desolated,  because  the  people  had  so  persistently  refused 
to  listen  to  the  prophetic  word.  Those  of  the  ruling 
orders  whose  prerogative  was  most  directly  attacked,  the 
priests  and  professional  prophets  (§  10G6  ff. ),  broke  out 
in  a  frenzy  of  rage,  demanding  the  death  of  that  one  of 
their  own  original  circle  who  had  ventured  to  oppose  the 


Ch.  IV,  §1093     RAGE   OF    PRIESTS   AND    PROPHETS  181 

orthodox  traditional  belief  of  the  inviolability  of  the  tem- 
ple, and  to  ignore  the  representatives  of  religion  generally 
in  the  state.  The  priests  and  prophets  had  the  popular 
feeling  with  them,  since  it  was  easy  to  convince  the  people 
that  such  utterances  against  the  sacred  place  were  profane 
and  blasphemous.  The  tumult  that  followed  brought  the 
matter  to  the  attention  of  the  princes  of  the  king's  house- 
hold (§  531,  536  ff'.).  To  them  the  priests  and  prophets 
appealed  as  civil  judges,  demanding  capital  punishment  for 
Jeremiah.  The  princes,  hearing  both  sides  impartially, 
declared  that  he  had  done  nothing  worthy  of  death,  since 
he  had  simply  spoken  in  the  name  of  Jehovah.  The  fact 
was,  that  inasmuch  as  he  had  not  gone  into  the  details  of 
the  ruin  of  the  city  and  no  special  national  foe  was  named, 
his  announcement  did  not  so  directly  touch  their  dignity 
or  prerogative,  and  hence  they  could  afford  to  treat  the 
case  on  its  merits.  Their  decision  was  reinforced  by  the 
voice  of  the  "elders"  of  the  people  (§  486,  537),  who  had 
concurrent  jurisdiction  with  the  princes.  One  of  these 
cited  the  case  of  Micah  the  Morasthite,  who  in  the  days 
of  Hezekiah  had  made  a  similar  denunciation  with  im- 
punity, and  was  in  fact  deferred  to  b}r  the  king  and  peo- 
ple, so  that  the  divine  judgment  was  revoked  (vs.  17-19), 
But  the  priestly  faction  was  abetted  by  a  stronger  influ- 
ence than  any  enlisted  in  his  protection  —  the  king  himself 
and  the  most  servile  of  his  ministers.  An  illustration  of 
the  spirit  of  this  whole  repressive  movement  is  afforded 
by  the  fate  of  a  loyal  colleague  of  Jeremiah,  Uriah  son 
of  Shemaiah.  This  faithful  follower,  delivering  the  same 
message,  was  obliged  to  flee  to  Egypt  in  order  to  escape 
the  vengeance  of  the  king.  Thence  he  was  dragged  back 
a  prisoner  to  Jerusalem,  where  Jehoiakim  put  him  to 
death,  and  cast  his  body  into  the  burial-place  of  outlaws 
and  criminals.  The  powerful  friendship  of  Ahikam  (§843) 
served  for  a  time  to  shield  Jeremiah. 

£    1  <>**-i.      rmcouraged    M.v   the   anti-prophetic    spirit    of 
the  king,  the  rivals  of   Jeremiah  left  no  means    untried 


182  DEVELOPMENT  OF  DISCOURSE  Book  X 

to  accomplish  his  proscription  and  death.  The  next 
change  in  the  situation  shows  them  to  have  almost  gained 
their  end.  They  were  not  scant  of  material  on  which  to 
base  their  attacks.  Chapters  vii.  to  x.1  of  his  prophecy 
contain  a  reiteration  and  expansion  of  the  sermon  which 
had  so  deeply  stirred  all  classes  of  the  people.  The  dis- 
course strikes  right  at  the  religious  leaders.  It  also 
shows  well  how  the  specific  message  of  the  prophet  was 
being  shaped  and  moulded  by  the  quickening  forces  of 
Providence  into  a  thing  of  abiding  life  and  power.  We 
observe  how  he  defines  more  sharply  the  true  relation  of 
the  temple  to  the  national  existence  :  "Trust  not  in  deceit- 
ful words,  saying:  these  (holy  places) are  Jehovah's  temple, 
Jehovah's  temple,  Jehovah's  temple.  For  if  ye  thoroughly 
amend  your  ways  and  your  doings,  if  ye  do  justice  between 
man  and  man  .  .  .  and  do  not  go  after  other  gods  to  your 
own  hurt,  then  I  will  cause }'ou  to  dwell  in  this  place,  the  land 
which  I  gave  to  your  fathers  from  of  old  and  forevermore. 
Behold  ye  trust  in  deceitful  words  that  count  for  nothing. 
Will  ye  go  on  stealing,  murdering,  committing  adultery. 
and  swearing  falsely,  and  offering  incense  to  Baal,  and 
going  after  other  gods  which  you  know  nothing  of.  and 
then  come  and  stand  before  me  in  this  place  which  is 
called  after  my  name,  and  say  :  we  have  been  preserved 
in  order  that  we  do  all  these  abominations?2  Has  this 
house,  which  is  called  by  my  name,  become  a  robbers'  cave 
in  your  eyes  ?  " 3  (vii.  4-11).  The  fate  of  Shiloh  (cf.  xxvi.  6) 
is  then  more  amply  detailed  as  a  warning,  and  also  the 
rejection  of  the  Northern  Kingdom. 

1  Exclusive,  as  is  now  generally  admitted,  of  x.  1-1G,  of  uncertain  date. 

-  This  is  one  of  the  clarifying  sentences  in  which  the  book  of  Jeremiah 
abounds.  The  meaning  is  that  the  opponents  of  the  true  prophetic  party 
actually  claimed  that  Jehovah  had  set  the  seal  of  his  approval  on  their 
e-  induct  and  religious  practices  by  having  '•  delivered  "  them  and  the  holy 
places  (v.  4),  during  all  the  Egyptian  imbroglio,  from  the  sword  and  pes- 
tilence and  famine. 

3  That  is  to  say,  "Do  you  approve  of  its  being  like  a  robbers' 
cave  ?  " 


Ch.  IV,  §  1095        FALSE   AND   TRUE    WORSHIP  183 

§  1094.  More  specific  also  now  is  his  reference  to  the 
modes  of  false  worship  (cf.  §  1086)  practised  by  his  people: 
"Do  not  thou  pray  on  behalf  of  this  people  ;  and  do  not 
utter  for  them  a  cry  or  prayer,  and  do  not  intercede  for 
them,  for  I  shall  not  hear  them  (cf.  xi.  14).  Dost  thou 
not  see  what  they  are  doing  in  the  cities  of  Judah  and  in  the 
streets  of  Jerusalem?  The  children  are  gathering  sticks, 
and  the  fathers  are  kindling  a  fire,  and  the  women  are 
kneeding  dough  to  make  sacrificial  cakes  for  the  Queen 
of  Heaven,1  and  to  pour  out  libations  to  other  gods,  so  as 
to  provoke  me  to  anger  "  (vs.  16-18).  We  next  encounter 
another  of  the  great  sentiments  of  our  prophet  (cf.  §  1068). 
"  Thus  saith  Jehovah  of  Hosts,  the  God  of  Israel,  add  (if 
you  will)  your  burnt  offerings  to  your  festal  sacrifices,  and 
eat  the  flesh.2  For  I  did  not  speak  to  your  fathers,  nor 
did  I  command  them,  when  I  brought  them  out  of  the 
land  of  Egypt,  concerning  burnt  offerings  and  festal  sacri- 
fices. But  this  thing  I  did  command  them,  saying  :  Listen 
to  my  voice,  and  I  will  be  your  God  and  ye  shall  be  my 
people  ;  and  ye  shall  walk  in  all  the  way  that  I  shall  enjoin 
upon  you,  so  that  it  may  be  well  with  you"  (vii.  21-2-3). 

§  1095.  The  prophet's  mood  now  turns  to  fierce  denun- 
ciation. Only  the  strongest  and  most  lurid  images  can  do 
justice  to  his  feelings.  Of  Tophet  we  have  already  heard 
(§  718)  in  connection  with  the  judgment  upon  Sinacherib. 
Jeremiah  knows  of  victims  more  worthy  still  of  such  a 
fate,  those  who  have  themselves  made  its  burning  piles  the 
scene  of  their  profane  and  cruel  rites.     As  one  reads  the 

1  Usually  explained  as  Venus,  goddess  of  the  evening-star.  In  Stade 
(ZATW.  VI.  123-132,  289-339)  the  view  that  the  phrase  is  a  collective  for 
the  host  of  heaven,  finds  a  strenuous  but  unsuccessful  defender.  The 
worship  is  Assyrio-Babylonian  as  well  as  Canaanitish. 

-  The  implication  is  thai  the  sacrifices  of  the  t .in] >l* ■  were  kept  up  by 
the  worshippers  largely  on  account  of  the  social  and  festive  gatherings; 
for  in  these  sacrificial  Eeasts  the  god,  the  offerer,  and  the  priest  were  com- 
mon participants.  Rut  however  they  mighl  vary  or  multiply  the  types  of 
sacrifice,  their  motive  was  always  unworthy  and  ignoble,  in  tin'  view  of 
the  propbet. 


184  TOPIIET   AND   THE    ONBURIED    DEAD  Book  X 

judgment  of  the  prophet,  one  cannot  but  think  of  what 
constitutes  the  essence  of  that  Gehenna  of  which  the  val- 
ley of  Hinnom  was  both  the  original  and  the  Old  Testa- 
ment symbol  —  sin  bringing  not  simply  suffering  but 
its  own  proper  punishment.  This  is  indeed  the  only 
explanation,  the  only  moral  vindication,  of  the  worm  that 
dieth  not  and  the  lire  that  is  not  quenched.  "Cut  off  thy 
head-tire.1  and  cast  it  away  :  and  utter  a  lament  upon 
the  woodless  heights  :  for  Jehovah  hath  despised  and  cast 
off  the  generation  of  his  wrath.  For  the  children  of 
Judah  have  done  evil  in  my  sight,  saith  Jehovah  ;  they 
have  set  their  abominable  things  in  the  house  which  is 
called  after  my  name,  to  desecrate  it.  And  they  build 
the  high  places  of  Tophet  which  is  in  the  valley  of  the 
son  of  Hinnom  to  burn  their  own  sons  and  daughters  in 
the  fire  —  a  thing  which  I  have  not  prescribed  and  which 
has  not  entered  into  my  mind.2  Therefore,  behold  the 
days  are  coming,  saith  Jehovah,  when  it  shall  no  more 
be  called  the  Tophet  or  the  Valley  of  the  son  of  Hinnom, 
but  the  Yale  of  Slaughter  :  for  they  shall  bury  in  Tophet 
till  no  place  is  left  to  bury.  And  the  corpses  of  this 
people  shall  be  food  to  the  birds  of  heaven  and  the  beasts 
of  the  earth,  and  there  will  be  none  to  scare  them  away  " 
(  vii.  29-33). 

§  1096.  Still  another  horror  is  announced,  the  most 
ghastly  of  all  to  an  ancient  Oriental  and  the  most  to  be 
deprecated:  "At  that  time,  saith  Jehovah,  they  shall 
bring  out  the  bones  of  the  kings  of  Judah,  and  the  bones 
"['  its  princes,  and  bones  of  the  priests,  and  the  bones  of 
the  prophets,  and  the  bones  of  the  inhabitants  of  Jeru- 
salem, from  their  graves.  And  they  shall  scatter  them  to 
the  sun  and  to  the  moon,  and  to  all  the  host  of  heaven, 
whom    they   have    loved   and    whom    they    have    served, 


1  Tin-  city  is.  as  usual,  personified  as  a  maiden. 

-  Equivalent  to  saying,  '-which  I  disavow  and  abhor."     Litotes  is  a 
favourite  usage  of  Hebrew  rhetoric. 


Ch.  IV,  §  1097  FALSIFYING   REVELATION  185 

and  after  whom  they  have  walked,  and  of  whom  they 
have  inquired,  and  to  whom  they  have  bowed  down. 
They  shall  not  be  gathered  up,  nor  shall  they  be  buried  ; 
they  shall  be  garbage  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  And 
death  shall  be  chosen  rather  than  life  by  all  the  remnant 
that  shall  survive  of  this  evil  race  in  all  the  places 
whither  I  have  thrust  them  out,  saith  Jehovah  of  hosts" 
(viii.  1—3).  Such  was  the  fate  reserved  for  recreant 
Israel  :  death  without  a  grave,  no  resting-place  for  the 
disembodied  ghosts,  no  union  with  the  ancestral  shades, 
no  reunion  under  the  family  head,  for  souls  fugitive  and 
outlawed,  exiled  and  homeless  forever. 

§  1097.  Next  we  have  a  glimpse,  all  too  rare,  into  the 
inner  workings  of  ecclesiastical  parties  in  Jerusalem. 
The  keynote  of  the  complaint  is  found  in  ch.  viii.  10  : 
"From  prophet  to  priest  every  one  of  them  acteth  deceit- 
fully." The  preacher  wonders  why  there  is  no  sign  of 
change  or  turning  in  the  course  of  the  offending  people, 
who  rush  into  sin  as  the  horse  rushes  headlong  into  battle 
(viii.  4—6).  More  insensate  than  the  bird  of  passage, 
which  unfailingly  observes  the  times  of  its  going  and  re- 
turning, they  ignore  the  imperious  law  of  life  and  conduct 
of  loyalty  and  duty  which  is  just  as  truly  a  law  of  nature 
under  the  ordering  of  Jehovah1  (v.  7).  In  defence 
of  their  course  in  any  special  case,  they  appeal  to  their 
written  teaching  (law)  of  Jehovah.  To  this  Jeremiah 
replies  that  their  scribes  have  falsified  Jehovah's  revela- 
tion :   "The  pen  of  the  scribes  has  wrought  deceitfully"  - 

1  Observe  that  to  the  ancient  Semites  the  divine  influence  and  control 
were  operative  just  as  truly  in  the  life  of  animals  as  in  the  spirit  of  man, 
since  superhuman  action  impelled  all  activity  in  all  alike.  Moreover,  to 
them  there  was  no  well-defined  distinction  between  nature  and  the  super- 
natural such  as  we  so  confidently  make. 

2  This  reference  is  somewhat  obscure.  It  cannot  be  meant  that  any 
portion  of  the  writings  already  "canonical  "  was  falsified  by  the  scribes. 
This  they  did  not  dare,  and  probably  did  not  desire,  to  do.  Two  explana- 
tions are  possible.  Either,  like  their  New  Testament  antitypes,  they 
'•made    void    the    commandments    of    God    by    their    traditions''    (Mark 


186  WRATH  AND  TEARS  Book  X 

(v.  8).  Having  thus  added  treachery  toward  their  coun- 
trymen and  unfaithfulness  toward  Jehovah  to  their  shame- 
less moral  and  religions  abominations,  nothing  remained 
for  them  but  the  extremest  modes  of  exemplary  suffering 
(vs.  10-13).  Again  as  before  it  is  the  foe  coming  from 
the  north  that  is  to  execute  the  vengeance  of  Jehovah  : 
"From  Dan  has  been  heard  the  snorting  of  his  horses:  at 
the  sound  of  the  neighing  of  his  steeds  all  the  earth  hath 
trembled"  (v.  16). 

§  1098.  In  Jeremiah  grief  perpetually  struggles  for 
the  mastery  with  indignation.  In  the  fierceness  and  fury 
of  his  wrath  there  is  often  heard  an  undertone  of  pity 
and  remorse,  like  the  far-off  moaning  of  an  indignant 
sea,  or  the  wind's  wailing  interlude  in  the  roaring  of 
the  tempest.  Ever  and  anon  we  hear  a  half-stifled  sob 
suddenly  quenched  by  an  outburst  of  anger.  But  at 
last  the  heart  within  the  man  insists  on  utterance ;  the 
revulsion  throws  him  prostrate  in  an  agony  of  distress ; 
and  then  a  torrent  of  tears  follows  upon  the  thunder 
of  his  passion.  In  such  a  passage  of  his  discourse  the 
hyperbole  requires  no  explanation.  Tears  are  at  once 
an  intellectual  and  a  spiritual  solvent,  and  clarify  alike 
the  deepest  thought  and  feeling.  Thus  with  tears  of 
smitten  grief  he  utters  the  incomparably  pathetic  words 
of  his  lamentation  for  his  people  seen  in  banishment 
without  their  king,  still  unsaved  at  the  end  of  the  season 
of  grace,  beyond  the  reach  of  healing  by  all  the  balm  of 
Gilead  (vs.  18-22).  Equally  moving  and  translucent  are 
his  tears  of  shame  for  the  vices  and  crimes  of  his  people, 
mingled  with  vexation  at  their  incorrigible  treachery  and 
deceit.  "Oh  that  my  head  were  waters  and  my  eyes  a 
fountain  of  tears,  that  I  might  weep  day  and  night  for  the 

vii.  13.  Matt.  xv.  6), — that  is,  they  nullified  the  received  ••  teaching"  by 
their  comments  and  glosses, — or  else,  while  divine  revelation  was  ad- 
mittedly still  made  in  Israel,  these  prophets  and  their  scribes,  in  contra- 
distinction to  Jeremiah  and  Baruch,  misrepresented  Jehovah  and  thus 
falsified  his  teaching.    The  latter  solution  is  the  more  probable. 


Ch.  IV,  §1100  A   GREAT   CONFESSION  187 

slain  of  the  daughter  of  my  people  !  Oh  that  I  had  in  the 
wilderness  a  lodge  for  wayfaring  men!   .   .   .'"  (ix.  1-9). 

§  1009.  We  must  make  room  for  another  passage 
without  which  any  account  of  the  spiritual  and  mental 
history  of  our  prophet  would  be  defective.  It  may  not 
be  in  its  right  place  in  the  current  texts ;  but  it  is 
appropriate  almost  anywhere  among  these  discourses. 
It  sets  on  the  broadest  basis  Jeremiah's  own  faith  and 
devotion  as  a  speeies  of  moral  enthusiasm,  inspired  by 
the  knowledge  and  contemplation  of  a  God  whose  very 
nature  expresses  itself  in  righteousness  and  mercy.  "Thus 
saith  Jehovah  :  let  not  the  wise  man  boast  of  his  wis- 
dom ;  and  let  not  the  mighty  man  boast  of  his  might  ; 
let  not  the  rich  man  boast  of  his  riches  ;  but  if  any  one 
will  boast,  let  him  boast  of  this,  that  he  understandeth 
and  knoweth  me,  that  I  am  Jehovah  that  doeth  kindness 
and  justice  and  righteousness  in  the  earth,  for  I  have 
pleasure  in  these  things,  saith  Jehovah  "  (ix.  22  f.).  This 
specimen  of  the  grand  prophetic  style  is  the  Old  Testa- 
ment confession  of  faith,  to  be  set  beside  the  victorious 
avowal  of  St.  Paul,  Gal.  vi.  11  (cf.  also  1  Cor.  i.  31  ; 
2  Cor.  x.  17). 

§1100.  The  next  step  —  a  brief  one  in  Jeremialfs 
career  —  brought  him  from  the  position  of  an  indignant 
accuser  to  that  of  a  suspected  traitor.  The  transition 
stage  is  described  in  chapter  xi.-xii.  0.  The  rather  frag- 
mentary record  is  introduced  by  a  reminiscence  of  an 
earlier  time1  (cf.  §  961),  when  Jeremiah  was  directed   to 

1  This  section  was,  of  course,  not  written  down  till  <>05  n.c.  (§  1082); 
but  xi.  1-8  are  introductory  and  explanatory.  Tin'  formula,  xi.  1.  ••The 
word  which  was  to  Jeremiah  from  Jehovah,  saying,"  is  the  one  usually 
employed  when  the  time  or  occasion  is  indefinite.  An  attentive  view  of 
the  whole  section  will  show  clearly  the  motive  "i'  the  initial  reminiscence, 
The  charge  bromrht  against  the  people  of  conspiracy  (xi.  '.)).  which  is 
naturally  connected  with  the  actual  plot  against  Jeremiah  |  \i.  18  ff.),  is 
directly  based  upon  their  infraction  of  the  "covenanl  "  (xi.  10),  which 
covenant  Jeremiah  himself  had  been  commissioned  to  preach  to  his 
fellow-countrymen  (xi.  1  ff.). 


188  COVENANT-BREAKING   AND   CONSPIRACY       Book  X 

address  the  people  of  Judah  and  Jerusalem,  exhorting 
them  to  observe  the  commands  of  Jehovah,  particularly 
the  "covenant  ""  (  Ex.  xxiv.  7  ;  Deut.  v.  3),  thai  is.  virtu- 
ally the  moral  and  spiritual  requirements  contained  in  JE 
and  Deuteronomy.  In  contrast  with  the  ideal  community 
that  was  to  be  schooled  and  nurtured  into  obedience  and 
purity  of  life  and  worship,  the  people  of  Jehovah  are  a 
band  of  recreant  idolaters  ( xi.  9  f.)  whose  gods  are  as 
man)'  as  their  cities,  and  in  whose  cities  every  street  has 
an  altar  breathing  incense  to  Baal  (xi.  13).  Therefore  the 
threats  of  the  book  of  the  Covenant  must  lie  carried  out 
(xi.  8),  and  when  the  doom  is  fulfilled  there  shall  be  no 
reprieve  :  their  own  gods  shall  be  deaf  to  their  cries  ; 
Jehovah  shall  be  deaf  and  dumb  ( xi.  11  f.),  nor  shall  any 
intercession  be  made  for  them  (xi.  14).  All  this  is  a 
matter  of  moral  cause  and  effect,  and  not  of  ceremony  and 
ritual  (§  1065  note). 

§  1101.  These  denunciations,  sweeping  and  general  as 
they  sound,  have  a  specific  and  definite  occasion,  and  this 
is  none  other  than  an  attempt  on  the  life  of  the  prophet 
himself,  made  by  his  fellow-townsmen  of  Anathoth.  The 
exact  circumstances  are  not  related.  It  is  natural,  how- 
ever, to  couple  the  plot  with  the  threats  uttered  at  the 
entry  of  the  temple  (§  1002).  Still  more  significant  is 
the  fact  that  in  the  appeals  for  capital  punishment  against 
Jeremiah,  the  official  priests  had  taken  the  leading  part, 
and  that  Anathoth,  where  the  attempt  was  made,  was 
a  community  of  priestly  families.  The  local  priesthood 
were  of  course  under  the  control  of  the  central  body  at 
Jerusalem.  Without  the  instigation  or  authority  of  the 
latter  they  would  scarcely  have  undertaken  such  a  serious 
enterprise,  odious  as  Jeremiah  was  to  the  whole  of  the 
regular  priesthood.  In  the  present  case  a  blow  straight 
and  strong  had  been  aimed  at  the  priesthood,  and  the 
resentment  was  uncontrollable.  Jeremiah,  however,  had 
a  powerful  friend  at  court  (^  1092),  and  the  time  had  not 
come   for  an  open  attack  upon  his  life.      Hence  treachery 


Ch.  IV,  §  1103         LESSON   FROM   THE    TOTTER  189 

was  resorted  to,  and  it  would  even  seem  that  some  of  his 
own  kindred  were  concerned  in  the  nefarious  scheme  (xii.  6). 

§  1102.  The  guilty  parties  are  connected  with  the 
plot  by  Jeremiah  himself  (eh.  xviii.).  The  record  runs 
parallel  with  the  account  of  the  scene  before  the  temple 
(ch.  xxvi.).  and  apparently  relates  what  occurred  soon 
thereafter.  The  prophet  sees  a  potter  at  his  wheel,  reject- 
ing work  which  had  been  spoiled,  and  making  a  new  vessel 
according  to  his  own  design  (xviii.  1-1).  This  transaction 
is  applied  to  the  case  of  Israel,  which  is  a  vessel  spoiled  for 
Jehovah's  purposes,  so  that  He  has  to  reject  it,  according 
to  the  theory  and  practice  of  his  government  of  the  world. 
The  vessel,  however,  is  a  living  people,  endowed  with  the 
power  of  choice,  so  that  repentance  may  yet  stay  the  hand 
stretched  out  to  destroy  (xviii.  5-10).  When  the  crisis 
is  presented  to  the  rulers  of  the  people,  they  stubbornly 
persist  in  their  own  destruction  (xviii.  11  f.).  When 
the  sentence  is  pronounced  against  their  land  and  nation 
(vs.  13-17),  they  enter  into  a  formal  conspiracy  against 
Jeremiah,  basing  their  action  on  the  ground  that  he  has 
usurped  the  function  of  the  regular  guides  of  the  people, 
the  priests,  counsellors,  prophets:  "for  direction  shall  not 
fail  from  the  priest,  nor  counsel  from  the  wise,  nor  the 
word  from  the  prophet"  (v.  18).  Here  again  the  imme- 
diate question  was  one  of  professional  rivalry  (cf.  §  In'.):',). 
But  the  grievance  that  brought  upon  Jeremiah  the  enmity 
of  the  whole  ol'tieial  class  was  his  supposed  treason,  in 
giving  over  his  country  to  the  new  foreign  power  that 
should  take  the  place  of  the  routed  Egyptians  (§  101*1  f. ). 

§  1103.  This  conflict  was  to  Jeremiah  the  beginning 
of  sorrows.  He  had  ardently  hoped  that  the  prospect 
of  subjugation  by  an  irresistible  foe  would  move  king 
and  people  to  sonic  serious  attempt  at  reformation. 
Bui  they  could  not  see  things  with  his  eyes.  This  false 
worship,  imitative,  exotic  and  sickly,  and  the  depend- 
ence on  foreigners  which  it  had  encouraged,  had  made 
them   feeble,   hesitating,   and   vacillating   in   all   civic  ac- 


190  JEREMIAH   AND    HIS   PERSECUTORS  Book  X 

lion,  internal  or  external,  so  that  a  practical  fatalism 
paralyzed  both  thought  and  enterprise  throughout  the 
body  politic.  Thus  the  threatened  invasion,  real  and 
imminent  as  it  was  to  Jeremiah,  was  to  them  only  a 
remotely  contingent  peril,  till  it  came  thundering  at 
their  gates.  In  like  manner,  though  habituated  to  the 
formulae  of  prophetic  teaching  for  generations,  the}'  could 
not  interpret  its  language,  which  could  only  be  u  spiritu- 
ally discerned."  Above  all,  the  range  and  scope  of 
its  practical  application  were  wholly  beyond  their  ken. 
Slaves  as  they  were  to  ceremony  and  ritual,  even  when 
giving  Jehovah  the  chief  place  in  their  formal  services, 
they  were  without  that  "inspiration"  which  endowed  Jere- 
miah and  his  little  circle  with  a  sense  of  the  living  power 
of  Israel's  God  both  in  the  political  and  in  the  moral 
realm.  As  the  outward  functions  of  religion  filled  out 
their  idea  of  worship,  so  they  could  not  conceive  that  the 
object  of  their  devotions  was  active  and  potent  beyond 
the  visible  sphere  of  their  customary  formalities.  As 
religion  with  them  took  the  place  of  morality,  so  sight 
took  the  place  of  faith,  the  present  of  the  eternal,  Jeru- 
salem of  the  world.  The  vulgar  belief  reasoned  thus  : 
"Jehovah  dwells  in  Zion  :  He  must  protect  Jerusalem 
against  all  enemies,  else  how  should  lie  save  himself? 
We,  who  are  his  people,  dwelling  in  Jerusalem,  are  safe  as 

lone'  as  Jerusalem  and  Jehovah  himself  are  safe."     Doubt- 
er 

less  in  many  minds  similar  sentiments  prevailed,  grounded 
upon  like  arguments,  with  regard  to  the  gods  associated 
with  Jehovah  in  the  popular  worship. 

§  1104.  No  intellectual  and  moral  hostility  can  be 
stronger  than  that  which  arises  between  a  prophet  and  a 
professional  dogmatist.  When  the  issue  at  stake  is  one  of 
supreme  practical  importance  the  contest  is  virulent  and 
deadly.  Since  neither  party,  in  the  strict  sense,  reasons, 
recourse  is  had  to  other  modes  of  attack.  In  the  present 
instance  the  official  prophets  and  priests  construed  Jere- 
miah's judgment  upon  the  city  and  temple  as  treason,  while 


Ch.  IV,  §  1105     THE   PROPHET'S   MALEDICTIONS  191 

he  assailed  them  in  good  set  terms  as  the  real  enemies  of 
Jehovah  and  of  his  government,  as  aiders  and  abetters 
of  all  those  forms  of  impiety  and  immorality  which  were 
rife  under  their  administration.  In  their  view  death  was 
the  only  fate  that  he  deserved  ;  by  fair  and  open  means 
if  possible,  if  not,  then  by  assassination.  On  his  part 
there  is,  at  this  crisis,  just  as  little  self-restraint.  His 
mouth  also  is  full  of  cursing  and  bitterness  (xviii.  21  ff.  ; 
cf.  xii.  3),  and  he  invokes  upon  them,  their  wives,  and 
children,  the  most  terrible  of  divine  visitations.  Making 
all  allowance  for  Oriental  extravagance  and  rhetorical 
redundance,  the  imprecations  are  so  appalling  and,  as  we 
may  say,  so  unchristian,  that  some  comment  upon  them 
is  necessaiy  even  in  an  historical  summary  like  the  present. 
An  explanation  may  help  to  satisfy  us,  since  justification 
is  impossible,  and  since  the  process  of  explaining  away 
has  justly  become  discredited. 

§  1105.  Observe  firstly  the  form  and  mode  of  this 
attack  upon  Jeremiah.  His  opponents  were  guilty  of 
the  basest  treachery.  There  was  apparently  nothing  to 
extenuate  the  wrong,  except  perhaps  Jeremiah's  aggres- 
siveness and  iteration.  Machinations  against  his  life, 
the  plan  of  assassination  being  frustrated  only  by  special 
revelation  (xi.  18),  were  bad  enough ;  but  his  own  kin- 
dred were  actually  employed  as  the  instruments,  and  that 
while,  as  it  would  seem,  he  was  on  one  of  his  accustomed 
visits  to  the  home  of  his  youth.  Secondly,  the  sting  of 
the  cruel  design  was  its  ingratitude.  Jeremiah  knew 
that  his  message  was  the  true  one,  and  that  its  accept- 
ance alone  could  save  his  city  and  country.  If  he  claimed 
any  superiority  over  his  rivals,  it  was  because  he  was  the 
accredited  messenger  of  Jehovah.  Moreover,  his  moral  and 
spiritual  demands  were  in  accord  with  earlier  revelation, 
and  therefore  should  have  been  at  least  respected  by  all 
parties  in  the  state.  But  he  was  sentenced  as  an  impostor 
by  nearly  all  his  fellow-citizens,  with  the  king  at  their 
head,  and  persecuted  as  a  traitor. 


102  THE   PROPHET'S  SUFFERINGS  Book  X 

§  1106.  What  most  concerned  Jeremiah  was  the  vindi- 
cation of  the  truth  of  God,  the  determination  of  the  ques- 
tion whether  in  critical  instances  the  faithfulness  and 
righteousness  of  Jehovah  would  be  demonstrated.  To  his 
rivals  the  main  question  at  issue  was  whether  Jehovah 
would  approve  of  their  present  political  measures  (cf.  Jer. 
xxviii.  1  ff.).  His  intense  insistent  temper  made  it  a 
wearying  business  to  abide  the  long-deferred  decision. 
But  it  was  not  this  that  made  the  sharpness  of  his  heart- 
ache. It  was  that  he  must  endure  the  defaming  and 
mocking  of  the  majority  for  his  belief  and  trust  in  Jehovah 
—  in  his  own  words,  "because  the  word  of  Jehovah  is  made 
a  reproach  to  me  and  a  derision  all  the  day"  (xx.  8). 

§  HOT.  Another  consideration  presents  itself.  He 
was  confounded  and  baffled  by  the  mystery  of  his  trouble. 
Old  Testament  prophets,  pre-exilic  and  post-exilic  alike, 
regarded  suffering,  no  matter  how  inflicted,  as  the  direct 
consequence  of  their  own  transgression.  Indignation 
against  his  enemies,  as  his  interviews  with  Jehovah  reveal, 
was  mingled  with  reflections  as  to  his  own  shortcomings, 
of  which  the  disappointments  and  apparent  failure  of  his 
life  seemed  to  be  the  result.  The  elements  of  human 
sorrow  were  never  presented  to  any  soul  more  bitter  or 
undiluted.  But  neither  he  nor  any  other  sufferer  of  the 
olden  time  could  analyze  the  contents  of  the  cup  which 
the  Father  had  given  him  to  drink.  And  so,  if  we 
wonder  at  his  self-despair,  alternating  with  incoherent 
maledictions  against  his  persecutors,  our  pity  of  him  must 
be  tempered  with  something  like  admiration,  as  wre  behold 
him  in  the  very  desperation  of  bewilderment,  casting  him- 
self at  the  feet  of  the  Master  and  taking  to  himself  the 
blame  for  the  wrreck  of  his  hopes,  of  his  career,  and  of  the 
cause  of  Clod  and  Israel. 

§  1108.  Again,  this  spirit  of  revenge  belonged  to  a 
special  stage  of  Jeremiah's  experience  and  of  his  prophetic 
career.  Such  a  consideration  is  of  biographical  and  liter- 
ary value,  since  it  enables  us  to  group  into  one  collection 


Ch.  IV,  §  1100  HIS   VICARIOUS    MINISTRY  103 

those  scattered  passages  of  his  memoirs  which  exhibit  an 
extreme  of  rancour  and  intolerance.  But  it  is  also  in- 
structive as  showing  that  it  was  a  transient  phase  of  his 
development;  in  fact,  a  necessary  stage  in  his  spiritual 
and  moral  education.  Finally,  we  may  think  more  justly 
of  these  outbursts  if  Ave  recollect  that,  while  they  would 
be  sinful  in  us,  they  were  not  necessarily  so  improper  in 
the  ancient  prophets  of  Jehovah.  We  have  been  taught 
by  the  incarnation  and  sacrifice  of  the  Christ,  that  even 
the  most  evil  of  men  are  not  entirely  reprobate.  On  the 
other  hand,  Jeremiah  and  his  fellows  were  in  a  real  sense 
not  acting  or  speaking  for  themselves  alone,  but  for  the 
faithful  people  of  Jehovah,  that  nameless  band  who  were 
despised  and  wronged,  and  could  speak  only  through 
him  for  justice,  righteousness,  and  mercy.  To  claim  ven- 
geance for  oneself  alone  is  always  ignoble.  But  it  is  a 
species  of  "  noble  rage  "  to  demand  condign  punishment 
for  those  who  have  contemned  and  crushed  the  suffering 
saints  (cf.   §  597  ff.).1 

§  1109.  In  every  strenuous  and  victorious  life  there 
comes  a  time,  soon  or  late,  when  the  climax  of  effort  and 
endurance  is  reached,  and  after  this  supreme  ordeal  has 

1  Reference  may  be  made  in  general  terms  to  the  so-called  vindictive 
or  imprecatory  psalms,  some  of  which  are  supposed  to  have  been  com- 
posed by  Jeremiah  himself  at  this  period  of  his  life.  The  proof  of  such 
authorship  is  not  very  obvious.  Rut  it  is  not  necessary  to  suppose  that 
the  canonical  prophets,  and  the  psalmists  known  or  supposed  to  be  known 
by  name,  were  the  only  examples  or  "  types"  of  vicarious  suffering  in  the 
olden  time.  It  is  not  out  of  place  to  observe  that  if  the  right  historical 
method  of  interpreting  the  Old  Testament  did  nothing  more  than  further 
the  explanation  of  such  obnoxious  passages,  it  would  deserve  well  of  the 
church  and  the  world.  The  writer  lias  known  a  lady,  the  wife  of  a 
clergyman  and  the  mother  of  two  clergymen,  who  refused  to  the  end  of 
her  long  life  to  read  or  sing  the  "cursing  psalms."  Why  they  are  ever 
sung  by  modern  Christians  is  one  of  the  mysteries  that  can  only  be  ex- 
plained by  the  final  philosophy  of  human  nature,  lint  it  is  to  be  Imped 
that  the  coming  generation  may  be  able  to  read  them  without  either  feel- 
ing shame  for  the  Book  of  Books  or  uttering  apologetic  sophistries  in 
behalf  of  its  consistency  and  moral  perfection.  The  Bible  is  only  con- 
sistent with  itself  when  viewed  as  an  historical  development. 
o 


194  COMFORT    AFTEB    CONFLICT  Book  X 

been  passed  the  soul  is  sure  of  itself  and  proof  against  all 
new  disclosures  and  surprises.  Such  a  time  came  to  Jere- 
miah with  this  -sorrow's  crown  of  sorrow";  and  it  is 
strange,  divinely  strange,  that  his  strengthening  and 
confidence  came  not  with  a  promise  of  relief  or  com- 
fort, but  with  the  assurance  that  his  present  conflict  was 
but  a  foretaste  of  sterner  and  more  agonizing  strife. 
"For  thou  hast  run  against  footmen  and  they  wearied 
thee;  then  how  wilt  thou  compete  with  horses?  In  a 
peaceful  land  thou  art  secure;  but  how  wilt  thou  do  amid 
the  jungles  of  Jordan?""1  (eh.  xii.  5).  Yet  it  was  well 
for  him  that  he  should  now  know  the  worst  that  could 
befall.  Henceforth  he  knew  that  there  were  none  upon 
whom  he  could  rely  (cf.  xii.  6)  save  Jehovah  alone.  The 
rock  which  clashed  his  ship  to  pieces  bore  him  up,  wounded 
and  bleeding,  beyond  the  reach  of  the  breakers.  And  so 
we  soon  find  him  still  in  the  midst  of  bitter  conflict,  with 
no  abatement  of  outward  storm  and  stress,  but  maintain- 
ing against  all  appearances  his  confidence  in  Jehovah,  by 
reason  of  the  word  of  faith  and  promise  within  him  (ch. 
xx.  9  ff.  ;   §  1112). 

§  1110.  Before  this  point  is  reached,  however,  events 
take  place  which  intensify  the  outward  conflict  and  bring 
Israel  some  steps  nearer  to  its  doom.  Again  the  potter's 
vessel  (§  1102)  and  the  valley  of  Tophet  (§  1095)  come 
into  view.  A  finished  product  of  the  skilled  workman's 
labour  is  brought  by  Jeremiah  before  a  company  of  "  elders 
of  the  people  and  elders  of  the  priests,"  outside  the  city 
gate  that  led  to  Gehenna.  An  irrevocable  decree  of  de- 
struction is  pronounced  upon  Jerusalem,  whose  terrors 
are  to  be  concentrated  in  that  scene  of  horrible  desecra- 
tion.    Then  the  vessel  is   broken  before    their   eyes,  to 

literally,  the  "splendour  of  Jordan,"  that  is,  the  thick  foliage  and 
rank  vegetation  with  which  the  banks  of  the  Jordan  were  arrayed,  and 
which,  according  to  ch*  xlix.  19  (cf.  li.  44)  and  Zech.  xi.  3,  were  the 
haunt  of  wild  beasts,  represented  by  the  lion,  and  therefore  avoided  as 
dangerous  for  travellers. 


Ch.  IV,  §1112     PROVOCATION  AND  PUNISHMENT  195 

symbolize  the  catastrophe  (Jer.  xix.  1—13).  Naturally 
the  ire  of  the  priesthood  was  excited  by  the  harangue 
and  the  judgment.  Daring  their  fiercest  rage,  Jeremiah, 
after  the  symbolic  action,  returned  to  the  cit}*,  and,  taking 
his  stand  in  the  court  of  the  temple,  reiterated  the  Avoids 
of  doom  in  the  audience  of  the  people  (v.  14,  15). 

§  1111.  At  length  it  was  felt  that  a  warning,  public 
and  exemplary,  must  be  given  to  such  an  incorrigible 
offender.  Accordingly,  a  member  of  a  leading  priestly 
family,  Pashhur,  son  of  Immer,  who  was  chief  officer  of 
the  temple,  had  Jeremiah  arrested  for  sacrilege,  basti- 
nadoed, and  placed  in  the  stocks  over  night  near  the 
"upper  gate  of  Benjamin,"  at  the  northern  side  of  the 
temple  court.  On  the  following  morning  he  was  released, 
the  legal  punishment  having  been  fully  inflicted.  Jere- 
miah then,  fully  aroused  and  implacable,  pronounced  a 
judgment  upon  his  persecutor  personally,  in  addition  to 
a  detailed  repetition  of  the  sentence  upon  the  land  and  its 
rulers  (xx.  1-6;  cf.  Am.  vii.  16). 

§  1112.  After  this  strain  upon  a  mind  and  soul  to 
which  all  personal  antagonism  was  a  fiery  trial,  the  har- 
assed prophet,  borne  down  for  a  moment  with  a  sense  of  the 
terrible  destiny  which  he  had  accepted,  breaks  out  against 
himself  and  his  own  fate  in  terms  almost  as  horrible  as 
those  which  he  had  employed  against  his  foes  (xx.  14-18). 1 
This  utterance  (cf.  Job  iii.)  sounds  to  us  like  an  arraign- 
ment of  Providence.  But  "cursing  one's  da}'  "  was  a 
practice  in  which  Orientals,  pious  or  impious,  frequently 
indulged  when  in  a  despairing  mood;  and  the  language 
of  Jeremiah  is  merely  an  expansion  of  familiar  formula1. 
It  is  accompanied,  however,  by  a  direct  protest  to  Jeho- 
vah, which  turns  at  last  into  words  of  adoration.  This 
noble  passage  runs  as  follows:  "Thou  didst  beguile  me, 

1  These  verses  are  placed  by  Cornill,  following  Ewald,  before  vs.  7-1.*]. 
The  whole  passage  (vs.  7-18)  is  assigned  by  Cornill  to  the  lime  of  Zede- 
kiah,  but  its  contents  suit  the  presenl  Btage  in  Jeremiah's  lite  admirably, 

following  up  as  they  do  his  complaints  in  chs.  xi.  ami  xii. 


196  JEREMIAH'S    INWARD    VICTORY  Book  X 

Jehovah,  and  I  was  beguiled.  Thou  hast  overpowered 
me  and  overcome  me.  I  have  become  a  laughing-stock 
all  the  day;  everyone  is  mocking  me.  For  whenever  I 
speak  I  cry  out,  'injustice  and  oppression,'  because  the 
word  of  God  has  become  a  reproach  to  me  and  a  scorning 
continually.  And  I  keep  saying.  'I  will  mention  it  no 
more,  and  speak  no  longer  in  his  name;'  and  then  it 
becomes  in  my  heart  like  a  burning  lire  shut  up  in  my 
bones,  and  I  become  weary  of  holding  in,  and  I  cannot  do 
it.  For  I  have  heard  the  slanders  of  many  people,  and 
fears  are  all  about  me.  'Denounce  him.  and  we  will 
denounce  him,  too,'  say  all  my  sworn  companions,  who 
are  watching  for  my  fall;  'perhaps  he  will  be  entrapped 
and  we  shall  prevail  against  him,  and  take  vengeance 
upon  him.'  But  Jehovah  is  on  my  side  as  a  mighty 
champion  ;  therefore  my  persecutors  shall  stumble  and 
not  prevail.  They  are  grossly  put  to  shame  because  of 
their  folhy,  yea,  with  an  everlasting  reproach  which  shall 
not  be  forgotten.  And,  Jehovah  of  Hosts,  that  dost  try 
the  righteous,  that  seest  into  the  reins  and  the  heart,  I 
shall  see  thy  vengeance  upon  them,  for  to  Thee  I  have 
confided  my  case.  Sing  ye  to  Jehovah;  praise  ye  Jeho- 
vah, for  He  hath  delivered  the  soul  of  the  needy  from  the 
hand  of  evil  doers  "  (xx.  7-13).  Truly  this  hard-trained 
spiritual  athlete  ran  better  against  the  horses  than  against 
the  footmen  (cf.  §  1109). 

§  1113.  We  are  now  in  a  position  to  measure  more 
accurately  the  moral  interval  between  Jeremiah  and  the 
ruling  parties  in  the  state.  Except  from  one  point  of 
view  Jeremiah's  course  was  unpatriotic  and  wrong,  and 
that  point  of  view,  though  all-important  to  him,  seemed 
to  his  opponents  ridiculously  irrelevant.  He  was  to  them 
an  unpractical  amateur  in  politics,  and,  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  lie  Mas  anything  but  a  politician.  The  Chahheans 
were  nothing  to  him,  nor  he  to  the  Chaldteans,  save  for 
the  kingdom  of  God.  But  that  kingdom  was  bound  up 
with   the   body-politic,   which  was    its   material   mode   of 


Ch.  IV,  §  1114       HIS   PROPHETIC    DISTINCTION  197 

expression.  He  did  not  distinguish  between  its  outward 
form  and  the  inward  spirit  or  motive,  which  employed 
king  and  princes  and  elders  and  priests  and  prophets  as  its 
instruments  and  servants.  But  with  that  clear  singleness 
of  view  which  is  perhaps  the  surest  note  of  Hebraic  in- 
spiration, lie  regarded  every  event  that  affected  the  fate 
of  Israel  as  the  direct  aetion  of  Jehovah,  while  his  profes- 
sional rivals  did  not  differentiate  Jehovah  from  the  other 
divinities  except  as  the  controller  of  Zion  and  the  temple, 
his  sacred  seat.  Another  and  more  cardinal  distinction 
was  that  according  to  his  genuine  prophetic  conception 
Jehovah  was  not  only  immanent  and  active  in  Israel,  but 
being  the  God  of  the  whole  world  he  controlled  also  the 
actions  of  outside  nations  upon  Israel. 

§  1114.  All  this,  however,  is  only  theoretical  and 
belongs  to  the  sphere  of  Biblical  theology.  Jeremiah's 
discourses,  his  pleadings  and  threatenings,  his  reproaches 
and  denunciations,  his  strong  crying  and  tears,  belong  to 
history  and  literature,  that  is,  to  humanity.  What  was 
it  that  converted  the  belief  of  the  universality  and  neces- 
sity of  Jehovah's  interference  in  human  affairs  1  into  the 
inward  sense  of  his  presence  and  his  urgent  concern  for 
his  earthly  kingdom?  More  definitely  still,  what  gave 
Jeremiah  his  assurance  of  the  hostile  advance  of  the 
Chaldseans,  such  as  Amos,  Hosea,  and  Isaiah  entertained 
of  the  Assj-rians,  and  of  the  divine  necessit}'  of  their 
ci lining,  while  his  compeers  and  colleagues  entertained 
neither  the  one  idea  nor  the  other?  The  answer  is  the 
open  secret  of  the  Old  Testament,  of  its  history  and  its 
teaching.  Jehovah  has  a  moral  not  a  mere  mechanical 
relation  to  his  people.  lie  demands  their  worship  not 
merely  because  he  is  the  God  of  Israel,  requiring  rites 
and  ceremonies  as  the  badge  and  expression  of  sen  i- 
tude,    but   because    true    homage    paid   to   him    is   a   suh- 

1  A  doctrine  which,  of  course,  was  never  formulated  by  Jeremiah  or 
any  other  of  the  prophets,  <>r  abstracted  by  them  from  their  consciousness 

nf  Jehovah's  activity  in  the  sphere  of  human  history. 


198  THE    ENEMY   PUBLICLY    NAMED  Book  X 

mission  of  the  heart  and  life  to  his  moral  requirements 
—  righteousness,  justice,  and  mercy  (ix.  24)  —  which 
supersedes  all  ritual  and  sacrifice  ( vii.  2'2  f.).  On  the 
other  hand,  all  immorality  —  injustice,  faithlessness,  cru- 
elty, deceit  —  is  rebellion  against  Jehovah,  or,  in  other 
words,  violation  of  his  moral  law,  which,  in  its  very 
nature,  demands  punishment.  National  immorality  de- 
mands national  punishment.  The  scourge  of  the  nation 
must  he  the  strongest  of  the  foreign  powers,  that  is,  once 
the  Assyrian,  now  the  Chahhean.  Because  of  the  god- 
lessness  and  unrighteousness  of  Jehovah's  people,  their 
chastisement  by  the  Chakheans  is  an  inexorable  neces- 
sity. Hence  this  was  the  great  burden  of  Jeremiah's 
messages  to  the  people  and  the  king.  And  this  purpose 
so  dominated  him,  that  he  was  emphatically  a  man  of  one 
idea,  and  therefore  one  who,  bej'ond  the  circle  of  his  few 
devoted  followers,  was  feared  and  suspected. 

§  1115.  One  more  public  appearance  was  vouchsafed 
to  the  importunate,  hard-beset  prophet.  Ch.  xxv.  1-13  con- 
tains the  abstract  of  a  discourse  delivered  by  Jeremiah  "to 
all  the  people  of  Judah  and  all  the  inhabitants  of  Jerusa- 
lem "  in  the  fourth  year  of  Jehoiakim  (xxv.  1,  2).  This 
address  marks  an  advance.  The  message  gains  in  force 
and  clearness.  But,  as  we  shall  see,  it  has  serious  conse- 
quences to  the  preacher  himself.  What  is  essentially  new 
in  it  reads  as  follows  (xxv.  8,  9) :  "  Thus  saith  Jehovah 
of  hosts,  because  ye  have  not  heard  my  words  I  will  send 
and  take  all  the  families  of  the  north  —  and  to  Nebuchad- 
rezzar, king  of  Babylon,  my  servant  —  and  will  bring 
them  against  this  land  and  against  its  inhabitants,  and 
against  all  these  nations  round  about,  and  I  will  devote 
them  to  destruction."  That  Jeremiah  should  now  name 
directty  the  author  of  the  impending  disaster  was  appro- 
priate and  perhaps  inevitable.  For  four  years  the  young 
Chaldaean  conqueror  had  been  famous  throughout  western 
Asia.  He  had  perhaps  just  been  proclaimed  viceroy  by 
his  father.     Moreover,  it  was  his  triumph  at  Carchemish, 


Oh.  IV,  §  1116  A   GENERAL   EAST  199 

achieved  in  this  very  year  (xlvi.  2),  which  made  it  obvi- 
ous to  the  prophet  that  the  ultimate  subjection  of  Syria 
and  Palestine  was  inevitable.1  But  hitherto,  in  accord- 
ance with  the  habit  of  prophecy,  he  had  spoken  in  general 
terms,  since  there  is  but  one  reference  in  the  earlier  dis- 
courses to  Jehovah's  personal  agent  in  the  humiliation 
of  his  people  (iv.  7;  cf.  li.  44,  Num.  xxiii.  24). 

§  1116.  The  immediate  effect  of  the  message  was, 
however,  practically  nothing  more  than  this,  that  the 
ruling  class,  with  the  king  at  their  head,  had  now  a 
better  case  than  ever  against  Jeremiah.  To  him  it  ap- 
peared more  than  ever  necessary  that  the  people  should 
be  collectively  warned,  and  that  the  real  character  of 
the  impending  danger  should  be  plainly  stated.  The 
national  gatherings  at  the  temple  furnished  the  best 
opportunity,  and  in  those  days  none  were  so  numerously 
attended  as  the  general  fasts.  These  were  not  statutory, 
but  were  convoked  by  the  priests,  under  the  direction  of 
the  court.  It  was  the  anxiety  and  unrest  of  these  troub- 
lous times  that  prompted  the  people  to  propitiate  Jeho- 
vah at  his  shrine.  Thej^  were  prepared  to  listen.  The 
prophet  was  eager  to  speak.  But  he  was  now  "  restrained  " 
from  appearing  in  the  temple  (Jer.  xxxvi.  5),  probably 
on  account   of   temporary  ceremonial  impurity.2     Hence 

1  It  is  fair  to  say  that  the  words  alluding  to  Nebuchadrezzar  in  xxv. 
9  are  regarded  by  Hitzig,  Kuenen,  Cornill,  and  others,  as  having  been 
taken  over  from  xxvii.  0.  Their  absence  from  the  Sept.  counts  for 
little  (cf.  note  to  §  1082);  but  they  are  here  introduced  ungrammati- 
cally, and  may  be  out  of  place.  However,  the  same  thing  is  virtually 
said  in  v.  11,  which  is  retained  by  Cornill.  The  interesting  question 
of  the  genuineness  of  other  portions  of  ch.  xxv.  1-13  cannot  he  dis- 
cussed hei-e.  See  Schwally,  in  ZATW*.  VIII,  177  ff.,  who  is  closely 
followed  by  Cornill  in  his  Text  of  Jeremiah;  and  cf.  Driver.  Intrfi 
p.  270,  272  f.  The  suspected  passages  are  not  necessary  to  the  develop- 
ment of  the  story,  and  are  therefore  nol  taken  into  account  here.  We 
have,  of  course,  nothing  to  do  at  present  with  what  follows  v.  13,  which  is 
a  summary  of  one  or  more  discourses  on  foreign  nations,  ami  is  therefore 
in  the  Sept.  united  with  the  series  chs.  xlvi.-li.,  being  indeed  separated 
from  vs.  1-13  and  placed  after  ch.  xlviii. 

-  See  \V.  R.  Smith,  RS.2p.  45G. 


200  DISCOURSE    READ    IN    PUBLIC  Book  X 

be  committed  his  discourses  to  writing,  by  the  hand  of 
Baruch,  who  was  also  to  read  them  in  the  hearing  of  the 
people.  His  former  addresses  were  to  be  also  included 
in  the  volume,  because  they  had  now  become  of  public 
importance  (Jer.  xxxvi.  1-7). 

§  1117.  This  change  of  form  suggests  one  to  two 
observations.  In  the  first  place,  it  was  something  new 
in  the  history  of  prophecy  that  the  author  was  not  the 
preacher.  We  have  here  the  beginning  of  the  public 
reading  of  the  Scriptures.  In  this  first  instance  some- 
thing was  both  lost  and  gained  by  the  delegation  to  another 
of  what  was  once  a  function  of  the  prophet.  The  mes- 
sage was  bereft  of  the  personal  force  of  the  seer  and  orator. 
On  the  other  hand,  when  it  came  to  the  business  of  read- 
ing instead  of  speaking,  it  was  appropriate  that  a  practised 
writer  should  appear  in  a  role  to  which  Jeremiah  was  so 
little  accustomed.  One  whose  strength  lay  in  appeal, 
invective,  and  warning,  would  be  apt  to  lose  his  power 
over  his  audience  when  obliged  to  present  his  impassioned 
thoughts  in  a  formal  recital.  Moreover,  the  occasion 
was  notable  in  the  literary  history  of  revelation  by  reason 
of  this  change  of  the  form  of  discourse.  Observe  that  the 
discourses  of  Jeremiah,  as  we  have  them,  are  not  unsuit- 
able for  public  reading.  They  are  copious,  often  diffuse, 
and,  as  a  rule,  expressed  in  the  homely  phrase  that  needs 
no  analysis  to  bring  it  home  to  the  understanding  and  the 
heart.  Contrast  with  this  style  of  prophetic  oratory  the 
discourses  of  the  other  great  prophets  from  Amos  onward. 
These  are  mere  summaries  of  the  spoken  discourses  which 
never  appeared  in  such  a  form  as  that  given  by  Baruch  to 
the  words  of  his  master. 

§  1118.  As  we  have  seen,  the  command  to  write 
was  given  in  605  B.C.  There  is  no  record,  however, 
of  any  public  reading  during  that  year,  and  we  must 
assume  that  none  took  place  till  December  of  the  next 
year,  the  fifth  of  Jehoiakim  (Jer.  xxxvi.  9).  There  is 
little  doubt  that  the  gathering  during  which  the  read- 

O  O  O 


Ch.  IV,  §  11  111  SCENE   OF   THE    LECTURE  201 

ing  took  place  was  the  first  national  fast  that  was  pro- 
claimed after  the  command  given  to  Baruch  to  write  down 
the  discourses.1  The  writing  was  therefore  done  carefully 
and  deliberateh*.  The  place  chosen  for  the  lecture 
(xxxvi.  10)  was  one  already  distinguished  by  addresses 
to  the  throngs  of  temple  visitors.  Jeremiah  himself  had 
spoken  there  (§  10i»2),  and  it  Mas  close  thereby  that  he 
had  suffered  the  punishment  of  the  stocks  at  the  hands  of 
the  overseer  of  the  temple  (§  1111). 2  This  noted  resort 
was  at  the  northern  and  most  frequented  gate  of  the  inner 
temple  court.  Here  the  king's  chancellor,  Gemariah, 
son  of  Shaphan,  had  an  office,  whence  he  could,  in  the 
name  of  his  master,  exercise  control  as  far  as  it  might  be 
needed  over  the  public  administration  of  religion.  He 
and  his  brother  Ahikam  were  protectors  of  Jeremiah;  and 
Baruch  doubtless  felt  a  greater  measure  of  security  in  the 
proximity  of  a  friend  at  court. 

§  1119.  The  solemnity  of  the  occasion,  the  novel  mode 
of  address,  the  reiterated  challenge  to  the  king  and  rulers 
in  the  announcement  of  Nebuchadrezzar's  coming  domina- 
tion, created  a  deep  impression  among  the  hearers.  A 
son  of  Gemariah,  named  Micaiah,  was  present  to  repre- 
sent the  highest  official  authority,  while  the  magnates 
themselves,   though   well   aware   of    what   was   going  on, 

1  Our  modern  versions  and  many  expositors  fail  to  represent  the  origi- 
nal fairly.  In  1!V.  a  new  paragraph  begins  with  xxxvi.  9,  as  though  the 
fast  in  question  were  a  different  one  from  that  referred  to  by  Jeremiah  in 
v.  6.  But  there  is  no  break  in  the  original  at  this  point,  and  the  natural 
understanding  of  the  story  must  be  that  Jeremiah,  at  a  time  s<  vera! 
months  after  the  command  to  write  (v.  4),  instructed  Baruch  to  read  at 
the  approaching  fast.  This  injunction  ends  with  v.  7.  and  v.  <s  begins  the 
description  of  the  reading  and  the  subsequent  episode. 

2  Various  designations  are  given  to  this  gate  of  the  temple  forecourt. 
In  xxvi.  10  and  xxxvi.  10  it  is  named  "tin'  new  gate  of  the  house  of 
Jehovah,"  in  allusion  to  the  fact  that  it  was  built,  or  perhaps  rather 
rebuilt,  by  Jotliam.  In  "J  K.  xv.  35,  where  this  facl  is  recorded,  it  is  called 
'•  the  upper  gate,"  while  in  Jer.  xx.  ■_'  it  is  designated  "  the  upper  gate  of 
Benjamin,"  as  being  on  the  north  side  of  the  temple  area  (cf.  Ez.  viii.  '.) ; 
ix.  2).     See  Nowack,  HA.  II,  36  f. 


202  EFFECT   OF   THE    READING  Book  X 

ignored  the  proceedings  by  absenting  themselves.  The 
young  man  was  s<>  startled  by  the  contents  of  the  roll, 
that  he  deemed  it  his  duty  to  report  them  to  his  father 
and  the  council,  who  were  assembled,  probably  in  antici- 
pation of  the  disclosure,  in  the  room  of  the  under-secre- 
tary  Elishama  in  the  royal  palace.  The  result  of  the 
communication  was  that  Baruch  was  summoned  to  appeal- 
before  them  in  person  with  his  portentous  volume.  On 
his  arrival  they  bade  him  read  the  document  before  them. 
A  great  consternation  was  the  result  (xxxvi.  11-16). 

§  1120.  The  king  could  be  kept  in  ignorance  no  longer. 
The  princes,  now  cognizant  of  the  manifesto,  would  be 
held  guilty  of  treason  if  they  failed  to  report.  They 
dreaded  the  consequences  to  Jeremiah,  whom  some  of 
them  regarded  with  superstitious  fear  and  some  with 
profound  regard.  Hence  they  bade  Baruch  see  to  it  that 
he  and  Jeremiah  hide  themselves  with  all  possible  secrecy. 
Then  they  repaired  to  the  northern  side  of  the  court  quad- 
rangle where  lay  the  suite  of  rooms  set  apart  for  the  winter 
residence  of  the  king  (cf.  Am.  iii.  15).  Here  Jehoiakim 
was  found  sitting  before  a  fire  of  coals  that  was  burning 
in  the  brazier  in  the  middle  of  the  room.  They  did  not 
bring  the  roll  with  them,  but  laid  it  by  in  the  secretary's 
office,  hoping  that  the  king  would  be  content  with  an  oral 
report.  When  this  had  been  given  he  demanded  that  the 
roll  be  brought  and  read  in  his  presence.  The  effect 
upon  Jehoiakim  of  the  reading  was  even  worse  than  the 
courtiers  had  feared.  Not  more  than  three  or  four  pages1 
had  been  read  when  he  seized  the  manuscript,  and  taking 
the  secretary's  pen-knife,  cut  it  into  fragments  and  threw 
them  on  the  fire  till  they  were  entirely  consumed.  Gema- 
riah  and  two  others  had  appealed  to  the  king  not  to  com- 
mit the  sacrilege,  but  after  the  deed  had  been  done  all 

1  Literally  "doors,"  that  is,  the  rectangular  columns  into  which  the 
manuscript  was  divided,  the  successive  lines  of  each  page  being  written 
parallel  to  the  length  of  the  roll.  The  material  in  this  instance  was  prob- 
ably papyrus. 


Ch.  IV,  §  1122         JEREMIAH   AND  JEHOIAKIM  203 

the  by-standers,  dreading'  the  royal  displeasure,  refrained 
from  any  expression  of  horror  or  dismay  (  xxxvi.  17-24). 

§  1121.  The  reverence  for  the  person  and  office  of 
Jeremiah  entertained  by  some  of  the  principal  nobles  was 
thus  offset  by  the  reckless  impiety  and  petulance  of  the 
king,  who,  we  may  be  sure,  was  supported  in  his  attitude 
by  many,  probably  most,  of  his  advisers.1  But  even  in 
Jehoiakim  we  notice  a  change  of  policy  toward  Jeremiah. 
When  the  leader  of  the  independent  prophets  had  made 
his  previous  harangue  beside  the  court  of  the  temple 
(§  10!  »2)  the  protection  of  Ahikam  sufficed  to  safeguard 
him.  Now,  however,  the  command  went  forth  that  Jere- 
miah must  be  put  to  death.  He  hid  himself  to  save  his 
life,  and  the  secret  of  his  hiding-place  was  faithfully  kept. 

§  1122.  Such  an  edict  was  in  keeping  with  the  harsh- 
ness and  moral  insensibility  that  marked  Jehoiakim.  Jere- 
miah himself  has  recorded  his  reputation  for  injustice, 
greed,  and  selfish  luxuriousness  (xxii.  13  ff.).  Like  all 
covetous  men  he  was  essentially  irreligious.  He  disliked 
extreme  opinions,  and  as  he  had  a  lofty  conception  of  his 
kingly  rights,  he  was  determined  to  put  down  all  agitation 
that  would  make  government  troublesome.  Though  idola- 
try nourished  under  him,  he  was  no  innovator  in  matters 
of  faith  and  worship  like  Ahaz  or  Manasseh.2  Indeed  all 
the  successors  of  Josiah,  young  men  and  immature  and 
anything  but  statesmanlike,  were  rather  opportunists  and 
time-servers  than  radical  subverters  of  the  time-honored 
theocratic  institutions.  Jehoiakim  simply  adapted  him- 
self to  the  ruling  conditions.  He  found  that  the  popular 
type    of    religion    now   established    by    prevailing    usage, 

1  Not,  however,  in  his  burning  of  the  roll.  One  of  them,  who  was  the 
king's  instrument  in  (he  execution  of  Uriah  (Jer.  xxvi.  22  !'.,  £  L092), 
namely,  Elnathan,  son  of  Achbor,  joined  with  Gemariah  in  imploring  the 
king  not  to  do  such  a  perilous  thing. 

2  Notice  that  the  invasion  of  Judah  by  Nebuchadrezzar  and  his  irregu- 
lar auxiliaries  (§  1078)  is  declared  to  have  been  a  chastisement  brought 
upon  the  land  on  account  of  the  sins  of  Manasseh  (2  K.  xxiv.  3  f.l,  not 
of  Jehoiakim,  under  whom  the  calamity  was  endured. 


204  THE    KING    AND   THE   POLITICIANS  Book  X 

suited  best  the  mass  of  his  subjects,  made  the  kingdom 
more  congenial  to  the  neighbouring  states,  and  most  easily 
satisfied  the  cliques  of  priests,  prophets,  diviners,  and  their 
parasites,  who.  with  the  decline  of  the  kingdom  and  the 
curtailed  jurisdiction  of  the  civil  authorities,  tended  more 
and  more  to  become  the  dominant  element  in  the  state. 
Hence  he  favoured  the  concurrent  exercise  of  all  prescrip- 
tive modes  of  worship,  and  compromised  Jehovah's  pre- 
rogative all  the  more  willingly  because  of  the  reaction  that 
Mas  in  progress  against  Josiah's  reformation.  .V  similar 
temper  seems  to  have  governed  his  general  public  policy. 
He  accepted  the  yoke  of  Egypt,  and  wore  it  after  the 
sceptre  of  Syria  had  passed  from  that  ambitious  monarch. 
He  exchanged  it  for  the  yoke  of  Babylon  without  making 
any  useless  resistance.  And  yet  he  was  finally  cajoled 
into  a  fatuous  rebellion  against  his  all-powerful  suzerain. 
§  1123.  Moreover,  it  was  Jeremiah's  persistence  in  pro- 
claiming the  approach  of  Nebuchadrezzar  that  made  Jehoi- 
akim  his  open  and  implacable  foe.  With  the  king  went 
the  majority  of  the  nobles  and  princes,  who  now  found 
themselves  united  with  the  priesthood  in  opposing '  the 
alleged  betrayer  of  his  country.  One  cannot  entirely 
condemn  the  attitude  of  the  politicians,  who  were  doubt- 
less animated  by  intense  though  mistaken  patriotism. 
But  they  would  have  had  more  sympathy  from  the 
pmphet  himself  as  well  as  from  the  after-world  if  their 
course  had  been  more  open  and  independent ;  for  the  great 
question  with  them  was  how  they  should  play  their  part  as 
between  the  opposing  forces  of  the  Chaldseans  and  Egyp- 
tians. They  held  that  the  power  to  be  deferred  to  in  the 
meanwhile  was  Egypt,  which  was  still  the  nominal  suzerain 
of  Palestine.  But  the  battle  of  Carchemish  had  shown 
that  its  control  was  precarious  at  best,  and  the  time  might 
soon  come  when  the  practical  question  would  be  how 
best  to  conciliate  the  victorious  Chaldseans.  Meanwhile 
a  waiting  policy  was  maintained,  with  a  leaning  toward 
Egypl  as  the  nearest  power  and  the  one  in  present  posses- 


Ch.  IV,  §  1125      THE   PROPHET'S   TWOFOLD   LIFE  205 

sion.  The  attitude  of  Jeremiah,  who,  among  men  of  lead- 
ing, was  almost  alone  in  the  contrary  opinion,  and  who  at 
the  same  time  placed  the  stigma  of  impiety  and  wicked- 
ness upon  all  who  did  not  agree  with  him,  must  have  been 
exasperating'  in  the  extreme  to  the  heads  of  the  state. 
They  were  willing  to  tolerate  his  prophesying,  as  the  pre- 
scriptive privilege  and  craft  of  his  order  ;  but  it  was  quite 
a  different  matter  to  let  his  Avoids  steal  away  the  hearts 
of  the  fighting  men,  weaken  the  hands  of  the  leaders,  and 
bring  shame  and  confusion  to  Israel. 

§  1124.  This  irreconcilable  antagonism  remained  to 
the  end.  At  critical  periods  the  errors  and  recklessness 
of  the  king  and  his  counsellors  provoked  the  indignation 
of  the  prophet,  and  denunciations  and  threatenings  were 
poured  upon  the  heads  of  the  delinquents.  But  Jere- 
miah's career  was  not  one  of  unbroken  warfare  with  the 
chiefs  of  the  people.  During  his  interdiction  from  public 
speech  (§  1121)  his  disquieted  sotd  found  other  means  of 
expression.  The  stream  was  as  strong  and  full  as  ever, 
but  instead  of  wearing  away  or  tearing  down  the  banks 
it  deepened  its  channel  or  broke  tumultuously  upon  the 
hidden  rocks.  The  section,  chs.  xiv.-xvii.,  gives  a  partial 
record  of  his  utterances  and  reflections  during  this  period 
which  apparently  extended  nearly  to  the  death  of  Jehoia- 
kim.  If  our  chronological  data  are  correct,  t lie  dreaded 
Nebuchadrezzar  did  come  upon  the  land  within  a  few 
months  of  the  public  announcement  (§  lOTo).  Then 
Jehoiakim  submitted  to  the  Chaldsean  yoke. 

§  1125.  Along  with  this  humiliation  came  other  trou- 
bles  i»f  national  magnitude.  Chief  among  these  was  a. 
terrible  drought  (Jer.  xiv.  1—6)  which  Jeremiah  inter- 
preted as «i  token  of  Jehovah's  displeasure  and  for  whose 
removal  he  intercedes  in  the  most  piteous  terms  (xiv.  7  'h- 
Hear  how  this  "Israelite  indeed"  (cf.  Amos  vii.  2,  5) 
pleads  for  his  country  with  his  God!  "Oh,  Thou,  the 
hope  of  Israel,  and  its  saviour  in  the  time  of  distress! 
Why  shouldst  thou  be  like  a  sojourner  in  the  land,  or  as 


206  DIALOGUE    WITH   JEHOVAH  Book  X 

a  traveller  who  1ms  turned  aside  for  a  night's  lodging?"  1 
(v.  8).  The  interview  with  Jehovah  now  becomes  a  dia- 
logue—  a  passage  peculiarly  valuable  for  the  psychologi- 
cal study  of  the  mode  and  process  of  prophecy.  It  is  the 
very  centre  and  heart  of  the  book  of  Jeremiah.  In  it  the 
motives  of  his  life  and  work  appear  in  vivid  contrast  with 
the  spirit  and  conduct  of  his  professional  rivals,  while  the 
interests  at  stake  in  the  contest  are  brought  out  in  excep- 
tionally dramatic  form.  The  outlook  for  himself  and  his 
mission  was  of  the  darkest,  but  no  darker  than  the  pros- 
pect which  lay  before  his  country.  And  here  he  was  in 
hiding,  helpless  and  mute,  thrown  back  upon  himself,  or 
rather  upon  his  God.  The  fire  within  him  burns  so  that 
his  words  seem  to  be  flashed  upon  the  page  in  letters  of 
flame.  Jehovah  renounces  his  people  :  their  fastings  and 
prayers  and  oblations  an-  of  no  avail.  He  forbids  his  and 
their  own  true  messenger  to  intercede  for  them ;  their 
portion  is  death  by  sword  and  famine  and  pestilence  (xiv. 
10-12).  Jeremiah  replies:  "Alas,  Lord  Jehovah!  the 
prophets  are  saying  to  them:  ye  shall  not  see  the  sword, 
and  ye  shall  not  suffer  famine,  for  I  will  give  you  sure 
prosperity  in  this  place"  (xiv.  13).  To  this  Jehovah 
rejoins  that  the  prophets  have  given  a  lying  message,  that 
they  shall  perish  by  that  very  sword  and  famine  which 
they  have  decried,  and  that  the  people  whom  they  have 
deceived  shall  share  their  fate  (xiv.  11-18). 

§  1126.  Jeremiah,  however,  need  not  reproach  himself 
with  failure,  though  his  people  perish  in  disobedience  and 
impiety  ;  for  Jehovah  continues  :  "  If  Moses  and  Samuel 
were  to  stand  before  me   (Ps.    xcix.   G)   my  soul  would 

1  There  is  a  twofold  meaning  here.  In  the  first  place,  this  was  Jeho- 
vah's own  land,  and  he  was  inseparable  from  it  (§  581).  Hence  the  very 
tie  of  nature  seemed  to  be  broken  by  his  disregard.  In  the  second  place, 
it  was  the  function  of  Jehovah  to  give  rain  (Ps.  lxv.  9  ff.,  civ.  13  ff.),  and 
not  of  the  Baal,  whom  the  people  of  Canaan  looked  upon  as  the  fertilizer 
of  the  land  and  especially  as  the  rain-giver  (Smith,  RS.'2  p.  100  ff.).  Cf. 
xiv.  22,  where  this  prerogative  is  denied  to  "  the  vanities  of  the  nations" 
and  the  powers  of  the  heavens. 


Ch.  IV,  §  1126        THE   ANCHOR   OF   THE    SOUL  207 

not  turn  toward  them:  send  them  out  of  my  presence 
and  let  them  depart  .  .  .  those  that  are  doomed  to  the 
pestilence,  to  the  pestilence  ;  those  that  are  doomed  to 
the  sword,  to  the  sword;  those  that  are  doomed  to  the 
famine,  to  famine  ;  those  that  are  doomed  to  captivity. 
to  captivity  .  .  .  because  of  Manasseh,  son.  of  Hezekiah, 
king  of  Judah,  for  what  he  did  in  Jerusalem.  For  who 
will  have  compassion  on  thee,  O  Jerusalem?  and  who 
will  bemoan  thee?  and  who  will  turn  aside  to  ask  for  thy 
welfare  ?  .  .  .  Thou  hast  rejected  me,  saith  Jehovah, 
going  away  backwards,  and  I  have  stretched  out  my  hand 
against  thee,  and  have  given  thee  to  destruction.  I  am 
weary  of  repenting  .  .  ."  (xv.  1-9).  The  dialogue  ends 
with  strong  words  of  comfort.  And  thus  he  fared  in  many 
a  terrible  struggle  into  which  he  fell  after  inactivity  had 
been  forced  upon  him,  and  his  work  seemed  worse  than 
vain,  —  when  he  was  a  shunned  and  hated  man,  haunted 
by  the  mystery  of  the  fate  that  made  him,  against  his 
will  and  his  very  nature,  "a  man  of  strife  and  conten- 
tion with  all  the  earth "  (xv.  10)  ;  persecuted  for  the 
cause  of  Jehovah  himself,  whose  words  were  the  joy  and 
gladness  of  his  heart :  (xv.  15  f.)  ;  a  lonely  man  shut  ottt 
from  the  cheerful  ways  of  men  (xv.  17)  ;  whose  pain  was 
perpetual  and  his  wound  incurable  ;  deserted  even  by  his 
God,  who  seemed  to  him  like  the  vanishing  waters  of  a 
summer  brook  sought  in  vain  by  the  thirsty  traveller 
(xv.  IS).  What  he  anchored  his  storm-driven  soul  to 
at  last  was  the  assurance  that  Jehovah  had  not  really 
deserted  him  or  disowned  his  work  :  "If  thou  wilt  stand 
before  me  again,  I  will  let  thee  stand  before  me,2  and  if 

1  Vs.  12-14  are  quite  foreign  to  this  otherwise  closely  connected  dis- 
course and  evidently  belong  elsewhere.  Vs.  13,  1  I  are  mutilated  from 
xvii.  3,  4.  V.  12  is  in  the  manner  of  Jeremiah,  but  it  is  difficult  to  know 
where  it  should  be  placed.  V.  11  anticipates  vs.  19-21,  bul  spoils  the 
beauty  of  this  unique  discourse  in  the  place  where  it  stands.  Ii  is  perhaps 
best  with  Cornill  to  exscind  vs.  11-14  entirely. 

2  For  the  construction,  see  Kbnig,  Syntax  der  hebraischen  Sprache, 
§  3G1  )».,  and  his  index  of  passages. 


208  THE    LONELY    PROPHET  Book  X 

thou  will  bring  out  the  precious  from  the  worthless,1  thou 
shalt  be  my  mouth-piece,  and  thy  enemies  shall  resort  to 
thee  (Gen.  iii.  16;  iv.  7)  and  not  thou  to  them.  And  1 
shall  make  thee  for  this  people  an  impassable  wall  of 
bronze,  and  when  they  fight  against  thee  they  shall  not 
prevail  against  thee  ;  for  I  am  with  thee  to  preserve  and 
to  deliver  thee,  saith  Jehovah   .   .    .',   (xv.  1(,>-21). 

§  1127.  Still  deeper  must  the  prophet  go  into  the 
valley  of  deep  darkness  in  the  fulfilment  of  his  media- 
torial ministry.  He  had  served  his  people  as  teacher, 
monitor,  accuser,  and  intercessor.  Now  he  must  in  his 
own  person  and  fate  symbolize  their  ruin,  their  reproba- 
tion, and  their  abandonment  by  Jehovah.  As  fathers  and 
mothers  were  everywhere  to  be  made  childless,  and  chil- 
dren made  orphans,  by  the  sword  and  famine  and  pesti- 
lence, so  he  in  his  personal  experience  must  forego  the 
hope  of  domestic  jo}%  the  love  and  solace  of  wife  and 
child.  Not  for  himself  alone  did  he  remain  through  life 
a  singular  solitary  man  :  the  bareness  and  isolation  of  his 
lot  must  recall  to  him  the  grief  and  desolation  of  unnum- 
bered homes  visited  by  the  angel  of  death  (xvi.  1-4). 
For  any  who  should  die  —  even  for  his  own  nearest  and 
dearest  —  he  should  forbear  to  grieve,  keeping  far  away 
from  the  stricken  house  and  the  circle  of  mourners.  In 
the  day  of  Israel's  calamity,  the  dead  should  be  so  many 
that  the  wonted  tokens  of  sorrow  would  be  discarded  ;  all 
kindly  offices  and  all  compassion  would  go  out  of  use, 
because  God's  "peace"  would  be  cancelled  in  the  land 
(xvi.  5-7).  Nor  must  he  enter  the  house  of  feasting.  How 
can  he  feast  and  make  merry  when  the  voice  of  mirth 
and  of  gladness,  the  voice  of  the  bridegroom  and  of  the 

1  The  expression  is  a  pregnant  one  :  bring  out  the  -old  from  the  base 
metal  so  as  to  separate  the  two.  Jeremiah  is  admonished  that  steadfast 
adherence  to  the  rightful  moral  principle  of  God's  government,  and  abso- 
lute  reliance  upon  Him,  are  the  conditions  of  his  service.  The  "precious" 
is  the  will  and  the  truth  of  God;  the  "worthless"  is  all  that  tends  to 
obscure  or  belittle  them,  including  the  prophet's  own  repining  ami  want 
of  perfect  faith.     We  thus  learn  Jeremiah's  ideal  of  duty. 


Ch.  IV,  §  1127  THE   FINAL   PROTEST  209 

bride,  are  heard  no  more  ?  (xvi.  8,  9  ;  cf.  xv.  17).  Again, 
the  evil  is  traced  to  its  source  (xvi.  10-12  ;  xvii.  1,  2) 
and  the  doom  of  banishment  pronounced  (xvi.  13)  with 
all  the  accompanying  miseries  "  (xvi.  16-18  ;  xvii.  3,  4)  1. 
Then  the  prophet,  more  humble  than  ever  toward  God 
and  sterner  than  ever  toward  his  rivals  and  persecutors, 
prays  that  his  wounded  spirit  may  be  healed  and  his  safety 
made  sure,  while  with  proud  humility  he  protests  the  sin- 
gleness and  purity  of  his  purpose  and  desire  :  "  As  for  me, 
I  have  not  hasted  away  from  following  Thee  as  shepherd, 
nor  have  I  desired  the  desperate  day  :  2  Thou  knowest  it  ; 
what  my  lips  uttered  came  straight  before  thee  "  (xvii. 
14-18). 

1  No  attempt  is  made  here  io  bring  into  consistency  with  the  discourse 
ch.  xvi.  14.  15  ;  xvii.  5-13,  which  interrupt  the  connection,  though  they 
are  the  thought  and  expression  of  Jeremiah. 

2  Literally.  "  the  incurably  sick  day  "  ;  like  the  Homeric  6\edpiov  rjtxap, 
vTlXets  -qixap,  etc.      Cf.,  for  the  epithet,  xv.  18,  xxx.  12,  15;  Isa.  xvii.  11. 


CHAPTER   V 

HABAKKUK   AND    THE   CHALDiEANS 

§  1128.  Habakkuk  is  reckoned  a  star  of  the  second 
magnitude  in  the  firmament  of  Hebrew  literature,  yet  he 
shines  with  a  splendid  radiance  all  Ins  own.  Only  the 
brevity  of  his  work  precludes  him  from  a  place  in  prophecy 
beside  Isaiah  and  Jeremiah.  His  little  book  is  unique 
among  the  prophetic  writings  in  its  perfection  of  form. 
It  is  at  the  same  time  all  aglow  with  life  and  energy,  and 
fascinates  us  with  its  various  beauty.  In  its  combination 
of  grace  and  strength  it  is  equally  rare  and  admirable. 
In  its  harmonious  union  of  passion  and  reflectiveness  it  is 
unrivalled  in  all  Biblical  literature.  Moreover,  it  is  the 
most  suggestive  of  all  prophetic  poems.  Few  composi- 
tions of  the  Old  Testament  are  so  closety  packed  with 
educative  thought.  Amos  and  Isaiah  are  the  only  com- 
peers of  Habakkuk  as  interpreters  of  events,  as  masters 
of  the  Hebrew  philosophy  of  history.  Intellectually  he 
is  chiefly  distinguished  by  largeness  of  view;  morally 
by  his  impartial  sense  of  right  and  justice,  in  which  he 
lias  a  close  kinship  with  the  writer  of  the  book  of  Job 
and  with  Jeremiah.  Perhaps  no  other  poem  of  equal 
length  has  a  range  of  vision  so  wide  and  so  lofty.  Jeho- 
vah's immortality,  his  purity,  his  supreme  exaltation, 
his  general  and  special  providence,  his  control  of  the 
nations,  his  consistency  and  veracity  among  the  paradoxes 
of  history,  his  justice  and  zeal  in  the  judgment  of  oppressors 
and  in  the  vindication  of  his  servants ;  the  essential  per- 
sonal character  of  national  and  corporate  sin  ;  the  function 

210 


Ch.  V,  §  1130  THEME    OF   HABAKKUK  211 

of  the  world-powers  as  moral  scourges ;  the  selfishness 
and  wrong  of  oppression,  its  crime  against  struggling 
humanity,  its  futility  when  matched  against  the  retribu- 
tive justice  of  Jehovah,  its  self-destructiveness ;  the  secu- 
rity afforded  by  steadfastness  and  rectitude  ;  the  serene 
confidence  and  joy  that  only  trust  in  Jehovah  can  give  — 
these  are  the  themes  that  are  suggested  or  elaborated  in 
this  incomparable  poem. 

§  1129.  With  all  the  variety  of  subject-matter  the 
prophecy  of  Habakkuk  is  a  unit ;  the  unifying  interest 
being  its  great  theme,  the  Chaldsean  power.  In  this  sin- 
gleness of  view  there  is  a  remarkable  parallel  with  the 
prophecy  of  Nahum,  whose  exclusive  attention  to  the  fall 
of  Nineveh  we  have  already  considered  (§  831).  It  is 
significant  that  these  two  brief  compositions,  which  resem- 
ble one  another  so  greatly  in  general  literary  type  and 
in  moral  purpose,  should  deal  with  the  character  and 
career  of  those  two  nationalities  which  most  decisively 
determined  the  fate  of  Israel.  Their  similarity  in  theme 
and  plan  and  style,  as  well  as  in  mental  and  moral  atti- 
tude toward  the  problems  before  them,  make  it  probable 
that  one  production  influenced  the  other.  Nahum  wrote 
very  shortly  before  the  fall  of  Nineveh,  and  it  will  appeal 
(§  1137)  that  Habakkuk  composed  his  prophec}r  within 
the  next  decade. 

§  1130.  The  theme  of  Habakkuk  is  the  part  and  place 
of  the  Chaldseans  in  tin;  order  of  Providence  and  in  the 
discipline  of  Israel.  The  foundation  of  his  argument  is 
the  eternal  postulate  that  sin  must  be  punished  by  suffer- 
ing, lie  starts  out  by  boldly  inquiring  why  Jehovah 
shuts  his  eyes  to  the  notorious  and  flagrant  wrong-doing 
and  oppression  that  are  rife  in  the  land.  "The  oracle  is 
torpid,  and  justice  never  comes  to  light;  for  the  wicked 
encompass  the  righteous,  and  therefore  justice  comes  forth 
awry"  (i.  2-4).  The  poet  now  brings  Jehovah  upon 
the  arena  with  the  reply:  "'Look  ye  among  the  nations, 
and  consider,  and  wonder  greatly,  for  I  am   to  do  a  work 


212  PROBLEM   OF   THE    CHALDJEANS  Book  X 

iii  your  days  which  ye  .shall  not  credit  when  it  is  told. 
For,  behold,  1  am  bringing  up  the  Chaldseans,  that  fierce 
and  impetuous  nation  that  marches  over  the  breadth  of 
the  earth  to  take  possession  of  dwelling-places  not  its  own. 
They  are  fearsome  and  terrible.  Their  right  and  their 
might1  come  from  themselves  alone.  Their  horses  are 
swifter  than  leopards  and  fiercer  than  wolves  of  the 
desert  ;  their  war-steeds  gallop  as  they  come  from  afar, 
flying  like  the  vulture  that  hastens  to  devour.  Every  one 
of  them  comes  for  outrage  ;  their  faces  are  set  straight 
forward,  and  they  gather  captives  as  the  sand.  They 
have  a  contempt  for  kings,  and  princes  are  their  sport. 
They  scorn  every  kind  of  fortress  ;  they  raise  earthworks 
and  capture  it"  (vs.  5-10). 

§  1131.  Thus  far  the  Chaldseans  appear  as  instruments 
of  Jehovah's  punitive  justice.  But  the  prophet  is  too 
clear-sighted  as  well  as  too  patriotic  to  be  satisfied  with 
judgment  upon  the  transgressors  in  Israel.  It  is  not 
because  his  own  people  are  worse  than  the  Chaldseans 
that  they  receive  from  Babylon  this  chastisement.  Nay; 
as  compared  with  the  true  Israel,  these  foreigners  are  the 
most  flagrant  of  offenders.  His  sense  of  justice  now 
challenges  Jehovah  again  with  equal  boldness,  as  the  suc- 
cessful impiety  of  the  conquering  nation  rises  before  his 
imagination.  "And  then  he  rushes  like  the  wind  and 
passes  on;  but  he  is  guilty  —  he  whose  god  is  his  own 
strength.  Art  Thou  not  from  of  old,  Jehovah  my  God, 
Thou  holy  one  of  Israel?  Thou2  dost  not  die.  Thou, 
Jehovah,  hast  set  him  here  for  judgment,  ami  as  a  stone 
of  chastening  (cf.  Isa.  viii.  14)  hast  Thou  founded  him. 
Too  pure  of  eyes  Thou  to  behold  iniquity,  and  who  canst 
not  look  upon  evil,  why  dost  Thou  look  upon  trans- 
gressors and  keep  silence,  while  the  wicked  are  devouring 
men  more  righteous  than  themselves?"  (i.  11-13).      The 

1  More  exactly,  "  their  prerogative  ami  their  exaltation." 

2  This  and  a  few  other  needed  emendations  are  here  made  without 
special  comment. 


Cii.  V.  §  1133  THE    .MORAL    SOLUTION  213 

poet  here  implies  that  Jehovah,  whose  everlastingness  is 
but  the  proof  and  symbol  of  his  righteousness  and  faith- 
fulness has  made  it  plain  that  the  mission  of  the  Chal- 
dseans  is  to  test  and  sift  Israel.  But  still  the  puzzle 
remains  how  their  triumphant  impiety  can  be  tolerated  by 
the  God  of  innate  purity.  He  then  goes  on  to  say  that 
men,  who  have  been  created  by  Jehovah  as  numerous  and 
yet  as  unprotected  as  the  fish  of  the  sea  or  the  creeping 
things  of  the  earth,  have  been  wantonly  snared  by  the 
Chaldaean.  Elated  by  his  success  and  impunity,  the 
spoiler  makes  an  idol  of  his  own  huge  drag-net.  and  con- 
tinues to  seize  and  slay  his  defenceless  victims  (i.  14—17). 

|  1132.  In  search  of  a  moral  interpretation  of  these 
paradoxes  the  prophet  resorts  to  his  watch-tower.  Only 
thence  can  he  discern  the  far  horizon  where  the  earthly 
blends  with  the  heavenly  without  a  break  in  the  line  of 
vision.  "At  1113-  post  will  I  stand,  and  take  my  station 
on  the  watch-tower;  and  I  will  look  out  to  see  what  he 
will  speak  to  me  and  what  reply  he  will  make  to  my 
argument.  And  Jehovah  answered  me  and  said:  'Write 
down  the  vision  and  make  it  plain  upon  the  tablets,  so 
that  one  may  run  while  reading  it.  For  the  vision  is  yet 
to  come  to  pass  in  its  time,  it  hastens  toward  the  con- 
summation, and  shall  not  belie  itself,  if  it  lingers,  wait 
patiently,  for  it  shall  surely  come  and  shall  not  be 
deferred.  As  to  the  faint-hearted,1  his  soul  is  not  light 
within  him;  but  the  righteous  shall  survive  by  his  stead- 
fastness'" (ii.  1-4). 

§  1133.  It  is,  then,  the  revival  of  faith  and  confidence 
in  the  prophet's  own  soul  that  gives  him  the  answer.  It 
is   his   own   steadfastness    and    fidelity2    thai    carries    him 

1  I  follow  Bredenkamp,  I^^;^"1  for  r\o^-;  nan.     It  is  wanl  of  steady  trust  in 
Jehovah  that   makes  the  "  vision,"  or  the  expected  solution  of  the  ('),;,]_ 
puzzle,  appear  a  delusion  ami  disappointment.    The  steadfastness 
that  bears  a  man  up  is  the  property  of  the  ••  righteous." 

-  This  is  the  Old  Testament  inrocrTairis  of  things  hoped  for  (  Ilehr.  xi.  1), 
the  basis  and  potency  of  the  New  Testament  "  faith."     The  quotation  of 
in  Bebr.  x.  38  is  thus  justified.     Cf.  §  962, 1008,  note. 


214  FUTILITY   OF   THE   CHALDvEAXS  Book  X 

through  the  crisis  of  trial.  This  inward  process  of  self- 
renewal,  this  readjustment  of  his  relations  to  Jehovah,  is 
part  of  the  life  of  the  true  prophet.  Such  a  solution  of 
the  problem  is  subjective,  but  it  is  none  the  less  sure  and 
real.  Coming  as  it  did  on  the  verge  of  Israel's  last  great 
national  struggle,  it  became  the  watchword  of  the  faithful 
then,  and  forever  thereafter.  Just  because  it  so  reveals 
the  impulse  and  motive  of  the  religion  of  Israel,  it  is  the 
vital  centre  of  the  Old  Testament.  Here  we  can  place 
our  finger  upon  the  heart  of  Israel  and  feel  it  beat.  This 
text  must  be  the  starting-point  of  our  study  of  biblical 
theolog}T;  for  the  saving  truth  of  olden  time  was  a  vision, 
born  in  the  life  and  death  struggle  of  individual  souls. 

§  1134.  When  this  has  been  said  there  is  no  need  of 
further  perplexing  thought.  In  imagination  the  prophet 
has  already  overborne  the  crisis.  He  sees  clearly  now 
the  essentially  futile  character  of  the  Chaldaan  regime, 
and  the  rest  of  his  vision  is  devoted  to  characterizing  it. 
It  is  so  essentially  and  variously  bad,  that  it  will  work 
out  its  own  punishment  in  a  series  of  terrible  revenges. 
As  Habakkuk  always  sees  historic  events  and  processes  in 
mental  images,  the  records  of  which  are  a  sort  of  half-tone 
reproduction,  we  must  not  look  for  descriptions,  but 
poetic  pictures,  in  which  sentiments,  hints,  suggestions, 
side-lights  and  Hashes  of  truth  take  the  place  of  accurate 
delineation.  They  are,  for  that  very  reason,  all  the  more 
instructive,  for  what  they  lack  in  exactness  the}r  gain  in 
depth  and  power,  since  the  illustrations  employed  are  not 
the  naked  facts  of  history,  but  essential  principles  of 
Jehovah's  moral  government.  A  mere  summary  of  the 
remainder  of  the  prophecy  will  suffice  now  that  the  main 
thesis  has  been  established. 

§  1135.  The  poet  having  already  (i.  0  ff.)  set  forth 
the  irresistible  force  of  the  Chaldaeans  in  the  impending 
conquest  of  Israel,  turns  now  to  their  general  policy  of 
aggression  and  spoliation  which  is  to  meet  its  well- 
deserved  and  inevitable  doom.      This  is  hit  off  in  a  preg- 


Ch.  V,  §  1136  A   TRIUMPHANT   ENDING  215 

nant  sentence  or  two:  "He  is  treacherous  like  wine,1  a 
turbulent  and  restless  wight,  who  has  enlarged  his  appe- 
tite like  Sheol;  he  is  insatiable  like  death;  he  draws  to 
himself  all  the  nations  and  gathers  to  himself  all  the 
peoples."  Having  given  the  moral  key  to  the  situation, 
the  poet  now  disregards,  characteristically,  the  details  of 
the  Chalckean  decadence,  and  produces  the  climax  of 
rhetorical  effect  by  bringing  upon  the  scene,  like  the 
assessors  of  a  Roman  court  of  justice,  the  nations  them- 
selves that  now  lie  prostrate  under  the  feet  of  the  op- 
pressor. Through  their  mouths  he  utters  a  series  of 
epigrams  containing  the  gist  of  the  moral  case  against  the 
Chaldsean  power,  and  connecting  with  each  of  the  charges 
the  announcement  of  doom  (ii.  6-20). 

§  1130.  If  the  closing  chapter  of  the  book  was  written 
by  Habakkuk  himself,2  the  sublime  theophany  which  takes 
up  most  of  it  is  appropriate  to  the  occasion  of  the  prophecy 
as  a  whole.  By  such  appearances  of  Jehovah  in  the  glory 
of  his  power,  bending  all  the  powers  of  nature  to  his  ser- 
vice, prophets  and  poets  habitually  represent  (e.g.  Ps. 
xviii.)  his  intervention  in  behalf  of  his  suffering  people. 
No  crisis  more  worthy  of  divine  interposition  had  ever 
occurred  in  the  history  of  Israel ;  for  the  faithful  few  whose 
destruction  was  thus  threatened  were  the  forlorn  hope 
of  the  kingdom  of  God  upon  earth.  Even  the  closing 
passage,  the  serenest  and  most  victorious  in  all  prophetic 
poetry,  is  consistent  with  the  main  idea  of  the  book. 
The  absolute  trust  in  Jehovah  here  exemplified  is  the  best 
illustration  of  the  central  truth,  which  is,  after  all,  a  fact 

1  I  have  retained  substantially  this  expression  of  the  received  text,  but 
its  connection  is  very  doubtful,  and,  without  a  slight  emendation  of  the 
introductory  words,  quite  unintelligible. 

-  It  is  thought  by  many  to  be  post-exilic.  15nt  the  language  is  not  of 
the  distinctly  later  type,  and  the  only  arguments  of  weight  are  based 
upon  the  liturgical  words  which  were  used  Eor  the  hymns  of  the  second 
temple:  the  title,  the  musical  terms,  and  the  colophon.  But  as  the 
chapter  is  a  pure  ode  or  psalm,  it  may  very  well  have  been  adapted  to 
a  liturgical  use  from  its  original  prophetic  purpose. 


210  DATE    OF    HABAKKUK  Book  X 

of  personal  experience,  that  the  righteous  is  saved  by  his 
steadfastness  (§  1132). J 

§  1137.  From  what  has  been  said  there  can  be  no  doubt 
as  to  the  approximate  date  of  the  prophecy  of  Habakkuk. 
It  was  written  after  the  battle  of  Carchemish,  and  also 
alter  the  Chaldseans  had  supplanted  the  Egyptians  in  Pal- 
estine. More  definitely,  it  was  composed  just  before  the 
rebellion  of  Jehoiakim  had  brought  the  forces  of  Nebu- 
chadrezzar  against  the  land.  This  situation  suits  the 
conditions  exactly.  The  prevailing  impiety  (cf.  2  K. 
xxiv.  3;  Jer.  xiv.-xvii.),  all  the  more  lamentable  after  the 
reformation  of  Josiah,  was,  in  the  prophet's  view,   to  be 

1  The  analysis  and  explanation  of  the  book  given  in  the  preceding 
paragraphs  are  not  accepted  by  all  scholars.  A  number  of  influential 
critics,  dissatisfied  with  the  alleged  strained  and  artificial  interpretation 
resulting  from  the  current  arrangement,  place  i.  5-11,  the  rise  and  char- 
acter of  the  Chakheans,  after  ii.  4,  the  vision  on  the  watch-tower.  This 
transposition  is  adopted  by  G.  A.  Smith  in  his  recent  work,  TJie  Book 
of  the  Twelve  Prophets  (II,  116  ff.),  to  which  the  student  is  referred  for 
a  succinct  account  of  the  matters  at  issue.  The  two  essential  points  of 
the  change  are  that  the  evils  complained  of  in  i.  2-4  are  viewed  by  these 
authorities  not  as  having  been  wrought  in  Israel  itself,  but  as  having  been 
inflicted  by  an  outside  nation,  and  that  the  Chaldseans  are  regarded  as 
about  to  be  raised  up  for  the  purpose  of  quelling  the  oppressor,  the  author 
of  these  evils.  An  appearance  of  consistency  and  simplicity  is  undoubt- 
edly gained  by  the  new  arrangement;  but  I  am  constrained  to  stand  by 
the  received  order  chiefly  on  the  following  grounds  :  (1)  The  evils  of  i. 
2-4  are  such  as  more  readily  spring  from  internal  disorder  and  maladmin- 
istration than  from  foreign  pressure.  (2)  It  is  impossible  to  determine 
who  the  outside  oppressors  arc  that  are  supposed  to  be  described  in 
i.  2-4.  12-17.  They  are  certainly  not  the  Assyrians,  who  had  ceased  to 
exercise  direct  influence  upon  Judah  at  any  date  to  which  Habakkuk  can 
be  reasonably  assigned.  To  maintain  the  opposite  is  to  misunderstand 
the  Asiatic  situation  after  the  Scythian  invasions.  They  cannot  be  the 
Egyptians,  to  whom  the  description  of  i.  14-17  is  almost  ludicrously  in- 
applicable. (3)  As  has  been  pointed  out  by  Davidson,  it  is  most  remark- 
able, on  the  theory  of  transposition,  that  the  supposed  foreign  people  of 
these  verses  is  not  mentioned  by  name.  The  difficulties  raised  by  the 
hypothesis  are  greater  than  those  which  it  seeks  to  remove.  Some  weight 
must  be  attached  to  the  traditional  order.  Nor  must  we  forget  that  a 
c<  rtain  degree  of  obscurity  as  to  the  plan  and  purpose  of  the  prophecy  is 
to  be  expected  from  its  condensation  and  the  abrupt  transitions  which  it 
exhibits  throughout. 


Cn.  V,  §  1138         THE   PROPHETIC    SUCCESSION  217 

punished  by  the  oncoming  of  the  Chaldtean  troops  (Ilab.  i. 
6  ff.).  The  Babylonian  power  had  been  felt  by  the  nations 
generally,  and  was  known  by  Habakkuk  to  be  irresistible. 
But  it  had  not  yet  been  let  loose  upon  Israel.  As  we 
have  already  seen  (§  1080),  Nebuchadrezzar's  treatment 
of  Judah  had  been  studiously  forbearing;  and  it  was  only 
the  conspiracy  of  Jehoiakim  that  brought  down  his  wrath 
upon  that  luckless  people.1  The  date  of  the  prophecy  is 
therefore  about  600  b.c. 

§  1138.  It  was  thus  in  the  very  midst  of  Jeremiah's 
prophetic  work  that  Habakkuk  gave  his  message.  But 
the  greater  and  more  important  part  of  Jeremiah's  task 
was  wrought  after  that  event,  and  it  is  fitting  that  we 
adjust  the  one  to  the  other  just  at  this  critical  point.  It 
is  instructive  to  notice  the  progression  of  prophecy  up  to 
the  date  before  us.  Jeremiah  was  contemporary  with  all 
three:  Zephaniah,  Nahum,  and  Habakkuk,  and  doubtless 
learned  from  them  all.  Zephaniah  (§  830),  with  the  two- 
fold burden  of  the  Scythian  invasion  and  the  apostasy  that 
followed  the  reformation  of  Josiah,  sees  no  clear  way  out 
of  the  trouble,  and  contents  himself  with  objurgations 
upon  the  sinners  in  Jerusalem  and  the  wicked  nations 
round  about,  with  Assyria  in  the  forefront.  Nahum  is 
more  specific.  He  made  a  special  study  of  Nineveh  as  the 
long  triumphant,  but  now  moribund  incarnation  of  vio- 
lence, cruelty,  pride,  and  ambition  which  are  preparing 
for  her  unique  and  absolute  ruin.  Habakkuk,  supreme 
seer  and  poet,  confronted  with  the  image  of  the  new 
(  haldsean  power  rising  upon  the  crumbling  ruins  of  the 

1  Thus  we  may  explain  the  use  of  the  phrase  in  i.  0:  "Iain  raising 
up  the  ChaldaBans."  Smith  says  (Book  of  the  Twclvi  Prophets,  ii,  L23  : 
"  How  can  the  Chaldseans  be  described  in  i.  ".  as  just  <ii>mi/  n,  in  raised 
up,  and  in  14-17  as  already  fur  a  long  tune  the  devastators  of  the  earth?  " 
The  answer  is  that  they  are  described  as  raised  up  for  a  special  purpose, 

namely,  to  punish  Israel,  exactly  in  accord  with  2  K.  xxiv.  -2.  The 
instance  is  parallel  to  Am.  vi.  11.  where  the  Assyrians,  who  had  been 
long  noted  as  world-scourgers,  are  mentioned,  aboul  7('>u  r..< ..  as  being 
"raised  up1'  against  northern  Israel. 


218  THE   DIVINE   PARADOX  Book  X 

Assyrian,  finds  the  old  formula  of  national  sin  and  pun- 
ishment insufficient.  He  sees  paradoxes  in  the  divine 
providence  where  his  predecessors  were  content  to  make 
every  national  trial  a  vindication  of  Jehovah's  moral  gov- 
ernment. The  Chaldseans  are,  indeed,  the  instrument 
chosen  to  punish  the  sins  of  Israel,  but  the  Chaldseans 
themselves  require  explanation.  Will  that  which  the 
great  Isaiah  said  of  the  Assyrian  a  hundred  years  ago 
(Isa.  x.  5  ff.)  hold  true  of  the  more  brilliant  and  irre- 
sistible Babylonian?  It  will,  if  the  punishment  of  the 
lesser  offender  can  be  brought  under  the  same  law  as  the 
triumph  of  the  greater  (ii.  13).  This  is  the  problem  upon 
which  the  prophet  wreaks  his  soul.  Can  it  be  that  Jeho- 
vah is  behind  the  remorseless  tyrant  that  slays  his  creatures 
(i.  14)  unceasingly  as  a  sacrifice  to  his  own  power  and 
pride?  The  answer  comes  to  him  who  sees  the  end  of  the 
oppressor's  career  (cf.  Ps.  lxxiii.  17).  But  to  discern 
the  final  issue  is  given  only  to  patient,  steadfast  trustful- 
ness, in  other  words,  to  the  soul  that  has  already  found 
the  source  of  its  own  salvation  in  trusting  God  and  doing 
the  right.  This  is  the  pearl  of  great  price  which  the 
prophet  has  found  in  the  deep  dark  waters  of  doubt  and 
perplexity  and  set  in  the  bosom  of  his  discourse. 

§  1139.  Habakkuk  thus  summarizes  and  appraises  the 
career  of  the  Chaldaeans  as  the  scourge  of  Israel,  before 
that  career  has  well  begun.  He  not  only  supplements, 
but  in  a  manner  anticipates  the  work  and  word  of  Jere- 
miah, the  martyr  prophet  of  the  Chaldpean  era.  But  what 
a  contrast  in  temper,  genius,  and  style  between  these  two 
greatest  moral  teachers  of  the  time!  The  one  was  so 
brilliant,  so  serene,  so  self-poised;  the  other  so  humanly 
passionate,  so  self-distrustful,  so  minutely  dutiful.  The 
one  was  a  man  of  thought;  the  other,  with  all  his  diffi- 
dence, a  man  of  action.  Habakkuk  is  like  a  searchlight, 
that  travels  far  and  near  and  reveals  the  danger  points  for 
many  a  league  around.  Jeremiah  resembles  a  ship's  head- 
light, which  shows  the  rocks  and  shoals  that  lie  directly. 


Cn.  V,  §  1139  HABAKKUK   AND   JEREMIAH  219 

ill  her  course.  The  enthusiasm  and  serenity  of  Ilabakkuk 
must  have  sustained  many  a  fainting  soul  in  the  days  of 
Israel's  humiliation.  Jeremiah's  active  devotion  and  his 
priestly  consecration  made  him  a  tower  of  strength  to  all 
faithful  ones  in  every  vicissitude.  The  book  of  Habak- 
kuk  forms  the  best  general  introduction  to  the  inner 
history  of  the  true  Israel  during  the  Chaldcean  period,  and 
from  it  we  now  return  to  the  word  and  work  of  Jeremiah. 


CHAPTER   VI 

JEREMIAH    AND    THE   FIRST   REBELLION 

§  1140.  The  agony  of  such  a  struggle  could  not  last 
much  longer,  and  it  was  well  for  the  prophet  that  a 
change  in  the  whole  political  situation  relieved  him  of 
the  strain  of  the  irreconcible  strife.  AW-  may  assume  that 
with  the  coining  of  the  Chakkean  he  was  relieved  from 
surveillance  and  the  public  ban.  Probably  he  did  not 
feel  called  upon  to  prophesy  till  the  rebellion  of  Jehoia- 
kim  brought  turmoil  and  hopeless  disaster  to  his  country. 
When  the  "  desperate  day"  (§  1127)  arrived,  raiders 
and  freebooters  swept  across  the  border,  following  the 
half-disciplined  levies  of  Moab  and  Damascus  and  backed 
up  by  the  imperial  army  itself  (§  1078).  Israel  had  now- 
still  further  reason  to  respect  the  prophetic  word.  But 
there  is  no  chiding  in  his  recorded  utterances,  only  an 
outburst  of  grief,  in  the  name  of  Jehovah,  for  the  suffer- 
ings and  desolation  of  his  people,  followed  by  a  judgment 
upon  the  merciless  invaders.  "  I  have  forsaken  my 
household,  I  have  rejected  my  inheritance.  I  have  given 
the  beloved  of  my  soul  into  the  hand  of  her  enemies.  .  .  . 
Many  princes  have  destroyed  my  vineyard  :  they  have 
trodden  down  my  possessions,  they  have  made  my  pleasant 
possessions  a  desolate  wilderness.  .  .  .  For  a  sword,  the 
sword  of  Jehovah,  is  devouring  from  one  end  of  the  land 
to  the  other:  no  mortal  hath  any  peace.  The}- have  sown 
wheal  and  reaped  thorns:  they  have  made  themselves  sick 
without  profit.  .  .  .  Thus  saitli  Jehovah  concerning  all 
my  evil  neighbours  who   break   in  upon  my  inheritance 

220 


Ch.  VI,  §  1142  THE   RECHABITES  221 

which  I  have  bestowed  upon  my  people  Israel,  Behold  I 
will  tear  them  up  from  off  their  land,  and  the  house  of 
Judah  I  will  tear  up  from  their  midst"  (xii.  7-14). 

§  1141.  An  episode  of  the  invasion  and  the  blockade 
of  Jerusalem,  recorded  in  Jer.  xxxv.,  furnished  the 
prophet  with  a  rare  text  for  a  new  discourse.  It  is  also 
worth  noting  because  it  suggests  to  us  the  condition  of  a 
great  part  of  Israel  during  such  times  of  peril  and  dread. 
A  band  of  Rechabites,  to  save  their  lives  from  the  Chal- 
dsean  and  Aramaean  soldiery,  had  given  up  their  wonted 
life  in  tents  and  taken  refuge  within  the  walls  of  the 
capital.  They  were  but  one  of  many  little  communities 
whose  pasture-lands  and  open  fields  were  shorn  by  the 
razor  that  had  been  brought  from  over  the  River  to  make 
smooth  and  bare  the  land  of  Jehovah  (Isa.  vii.  20). 
Jeremiah  had  lived  over  in  imagination  the  horrors  and 
the  sufferings  of  the  invasion  and  devastation  of  his 
country.  He  now  made  a  practical  use  of  this  case  of  the 
fugitive  Rechabites.  Permitted  once  more  to  go  "in  and 
out"  among  the  people,  he  at  the  divine  command  invited 
the  heads  of  this  pastoral  tribe  into  one  of  the  rooms  of 
the  court  of  the  temple,  where  the  sacrificial  feasts  were 
wont  to  be  held  (xxxv.  3,  4).  There  he  set  bowls  of  wine 
before  them  and  bade  them  drink  (v.  o.).  They  refused 
to  imbibe  on  principle,  though,  as  the  names  of  the  leaders 
imply  (v.  3),  they,  with  their  ancestor,  Jonadab,  were 
adherents  of  Jehovah,  of  whose  service  wine  was  the  chief 
libation.  The  ancestral  prohibition  (§  41<>),  along  with 
the  custom  of  their  tribe,  was  enough  to  keep  them  firm 
against  all  solicitation  (vs.  6—11). 

§  1142.  Jeremiah  then  came  out  to  the  open  court, 
where  the  people  were  assembled  for  worship  and  sacri- 
fice, and  gave  them  a  notable  sermon  (vs.  12-17).  The 
Rechabites  had  obeyed  their  father  in  this  matter,  because 
they  held  his  command  to  be  sacred.  The  people  of 
Judah  and  Jerusalem  had  disobeyed  Jehovah's  revealed 
will.      This    was    an    affair    of    outward    observance:    the 


222  JEREMIAH    AM)   JEHOIAKTM  Book  X 

other  a  concern  of  heart  and  soul  and  life.  The  one 
was  an  injunction  delivered  but  once,  and  that  long  ago  ; 
the  other  a  charge  reiterated  perpetually  by  Jehovah's 
messengers  sent  to  them  for  that  very  purpose.  Both 
parties  were  sincere  in  their  professions  of  attachment  to 
their  respective  patrons  and  lawgivers.  To  which  must 
the  praise  of  obedience  lie  awarded?  The  lesson  is  an 
obvious  one  to  us.  But  we  must  not  think  that  his  audi- 
tors were  conscience-stricken  and  abashed.  They  most 
probably  thought  that  what  he  said  was  clever  and  strik- 
ing :  but  they  also  had  abundant  precedent  for  the  way 
in  which  they  honoured  Jehovah,  of  whose  worship  this 
unfashionable  prophet  seemed  to  have  such  a  narrow  con- 
ception. The  armies  of  Nebuchadrezzar  marching  to 
Jerusalem  gave,  for  the  time  at  least,  a  stronger  support 
to  the  prophet's  appeals  than  did  the  case  of  these  eccen- 
tric and  outlandish  ascetics.  Yet  the  men  of  the  tent  oc- 
cupied a  moral  position  far  superior  to  that  of  the  more 
privileged  men  of  the  city.  The}r  stood  for  a  principle 
held  consistently  for  hundreds  of  years  (see  §  416).  And 
it  had  been  their  salvation  morally  as  well  as  physically. 
This  is  the  secret  of  the  "-first  commandment  with 
promise  "  (Ex.  xx.  12  ;   Eph.  vi.  2  f.). 

§  1143.  We  pass  now  to  Jehoiachin,  the  ill-fated  son 
of  an  ill-fated  father.  For  one  whose  reign  wras  so  short 
he  furnished  much  matter  for  prophecy-  But  the  brief 
term  of  this  boy-king  was  the  most  fateful  yet  known  to 
Judah  and  Jerusalem.  His  fate  deeply  impressed  Jere- 
miah who  witnessed  his  banishment,  and  Ezekiel  who 
shared  it.  The  retrospective  lament  of  the  latter  (Ezek. 
\ix.  5-9)  is  a  poetical  embellishment  of  the  king's  fierce 
defiance  of  the  ChaldsBan  and  of  the  manner  of  his  surren- 
der and  deportation,  and  thereby  he  also  typifies  the  for- 
tunes of  all  the  latest  kings  of  Israel.  To  Jeremiah,  already 
committed  to  the  task  of  prophet  and  censor  of  an  expiring 
monarchy,  the  events  of  these  three  months  were  of  more 
direct  and  practical  interest.     Israel  was  rapidly  nearing 


Ch.  VI,  §  1144  WARNINGS   AND   ELEGIES  223 

its  doom.  Striking  figures  (Jer.  xiii.  1-14)  set  forth 
Jehovah's  rejection  of  his  people  and  their  folly  and 
pride,  the  prelude  to  their  utter  destruction.  Then  comes 
a  passage  of  wondrous  power  and  beauty  (vs.  15-17) : 
"Hear  ye  and  give  heed;  be  not  haughty,  for  Jehovah 
hath  spoken.  Give  honour  to  Jehovah  your  God,  before 
He  brings  on  the  darkness  and  before  your  feet  stumble 
upon  the  murky  hills.  And  ye  shall  look  for  light,  and 
He  shall  make  it  deep  darkness  and  change  it  to  thickest 
gloom.  And  if  ye  will  not  hear,  my  soul  shall  weep  in 
secret  for  your  pride ;  and  my  eyes  shall  weep  bitterly 
and  run  down  with  tears  because  the  flock  of  Jehovah  is 
carried  away  captive."  This  last  pathetic  warning  ad- 
dressed to  Jerusalem  is  the  prelude  to  an  elaborate  elegy  * 
(vs.  18-25).  It  first  commemorates  the  hapless  Jehoia- 
chin  and  the  queen-mother  :  — 

"  Say  to  the  king  and  the  queen-mother 
Take  a  lowly  seat, 
For  there  has  fallen  from  your  heads 
Your  diadem  of  beauty." 

Then  it  turns  to  the  cities  of  Judah  and  especially  the 
terror-stricken  capital,  bewailing  their  misery  and  tracing 
it  to  its  cause. 

§  1144.  What  Jeremiah  further  says  about  Jehoiachin 
seems  to  be  partly  a  reminiscence  and  partly  an  after- 
thought written  down  in  the  reign  of  Zedekiah  (Jer.  xxii. 
20-30).  In  it,  as  in  ch.  xiii.,  the  fate  of  Jerusalem  with 
its  cedar-built  palaces  —  compared  to  an  eagle  whose  nest 
is  in  Lebanon  —  is  closely  linked  with  that  of  the  youthful 
king.  The  language  employed  is  strangely  harsh  and 
pitiless.     "As   I  live,"  saith  Jehovah,  "though  Coniah, 

1  See  Cornill,  Text  of  Jen  miah,  p.  16  f.,  for  the  arrangement  in  elegiac 
"metre."  The  unpoetical  vs.  26  and  27  make  a  lame  and  Lmpotenl 
conclusion  to  this  noble  discourse.  Much  better  would  it  be  to  regard 
them  as  a  later  addition  by  a  writer  ignorant  of  the  elegiac  measure. 
Verse  26  is  merely  a  prosaic  repetition  of  v.  22  b,  and  v.  27  is  a  brief 
cento  of  some  of  the  harsher  of  Jeremiah's  accusations. 


224  A  PROBLEM  OF  PROPHECY         Book  X 

ilif  son  of  Jehoiakim,  king  of  Judah,  were  the  signet-ring 

upon  my  rig-lit  hand,  surely  I  would  tear  him  away  from 
it.  And  I  will  give  thee  into  the  hand  of  them  that  seek 
thy  life  and  whom  thou  dost  dread,  into  the  hand  of  Nebu- 
chadrezzar, king  of  Babylon,  and  into  the  hand  of  the 
Chaldseans.  And  I  shall  hurl  thee  away,  and  thy  mother 
that  bore  thee  into  another  land,  where  ye  were  not  born, 
and  there  shall  ye  die.  ...  Is  this  man  Coniah  a  de- 
spised broken  thing,  or  a  vessel  for  which  no  one  cares? 
Why  have  they  been  hurled  away  and  cast  into  a  land 
which  they  know  not  ?  " 

§  1145.  One  would  have  expected  some  pity  or  sym- 
pathy for  this  luckless  youth  called  at  the  age  of  eighteen 
to  a  post  of  terrible  responsibility,  danger,  and  difficulty. 
His  case  was  altogether  different  from  that  of  his  father. 
The  perilous  insurrection  against  Babylon  had  been  under- 
taken by  Jehoiakim,  who  left  it  as  a  legacy  to  his  son. 
That  Jehoiachin  failed  to  send  his  submission  till  the  city 
was  besieged  wras  doubtless  largely  due  to  the  same  coun- 
sellors who  had  encouraged  his  father  to  hopeless  rebel- 
lion. What  could  this  boy  have  done  to  draw  down  upon 
him  such  an  explosion  of  indignation  and  scorn?  It  is 
difficult  to  believe  that  this  discourse  was  ever  actually 
delivered  to  or  at  the  distracted  and  helpless  young  king 
whose  misfortunes  were,  for  all  that  the  record  shows,  as 
great  as  his  offences.  Apart  from  the  hyberbole  that 
marks  Hebrew  and  especially  prophetic  rhetoric,  we  have 
to  account  for  the  phenomenon  by  assumptions  which 
touch  the  very  nature  and  inner  process  of  prophecy.  We 
have  to  remember  that  the  Old  Testament  prophets  almost 
exclusively  regard  suffering  as  the  direct  punishment  of 
sin  (§  1107).  Compassion  was  not  always  withheld  from 
the  sufferer  (see  e.g.  xxii.  10),  but  he  was  held  to  be 
•■siricken,  smitten  of  God,  and  afflicted,"  and  therefore 
"he  was  despised  and  rejected  of  men"  (Isa.  liii.  3  f.). 
There  were  many  who  went  into  captivity  with  Jehoiachin 
whose  guilt  was  greater  than  his  ;   but  it  is   the  head  of 


Crr.  VI,  §  1147  THE   CASK    OF   JEHOIACHIN  225 

the  state  that  bears  the  brunt  of  the  popular  national 
calamity,  as  in  a  thunderstorm  the  lightning  strikes  the 
loftiest  summit.  Yet  there  is  a  law  of  compensation  in 
the  eternal  reckoning  of  the  good  and  ill  of  human  fates  ; 
and  if  we  knew  all,  we  should  doubtless  see  that  besides 
the  amelioration  of  his  lot  in  exile  (§  1147)  the  thirty- 
seven  years  of  Jehoiachin's  imprisonment  brought  at  least 
a  vicarious  blessing  to  his  repentant  fellow-exiles. 

§  1146.  But  there  is,  besides,  another  view  of  the  ap- 
parently unfeeling  language  used  of  Jehoiachin.  In  the 
prophetic  literature  we  must  perpetually  be  on  the  watch 
for  rhetorical  colouring  and  figurative  speech  when  the 
terms  employed  would  scarcely  suggest  the  peculiarity  to 
a  modern  Occidental  reader.  We  are  familiar  (§  870) 
with  the  habit  of  the  prophets  of  putting  a  part  for  the 
whole,  so  that  a  few  leading  traits  of  character  are  made 
to  stand  for  the  total  personality.  We  are  therefore  not 
ready  to  make  an  exhaustive  estimate  of  Jehoiachin  on 
the  basis  of  the  selective  and  therefore  one-sided  rhetoric 
of  the  extant  prophecies.  But  what  is  equally  important 
though  less  obvious  is  the  fact  that  the  prophets  in  their 
interpretation  of  events  represent  as  the  immediate  effects 
of  the  divine  agency  those  ordinary  events  of  human  life 
and  fortune  which  we  are  in  the  habit  of  ascribing  to  so- 
called  second  causes.  As  there  was  to  the  Semitic  mind 
but  one  great  and  only  cause,  his  action  is  set  forth  as 
involved  in  all  human  experience.  Thus  here  the  details 
of  the  fate  of  Jehoiachin  are  rendered,  so  to  speak,  into 
their  equivalent  of  divine  moral  causation.  A  twofold 
literary  phenomenon  is  thus  presented.  Evil  brings  the 
result  of  sin  ;  the  evils  of  Jehoiachin's  lot  appear  in  the 
guise  of  his  sins.  And  Jehovah,  as  the  cause  of  all  things, 
is  described  as  carrying  out  his  own  moral  laws  in  the 
dethronement  and  banishment  of  the  King. 

§  1147.  But  to  prove  that  this  outburst  with  regard 
to  Jehoiachin  was  mainly  subjective  we  have  something 
better  than  deductive  argument.      The  case  of  the  exiled 


22G  FOREBODINGS  AND  TACTS  Book  X 

king  was  not  in  all  respects  so  hard  as  is  here  prognosti- 
cated. The  concluding  verse  runs  (xxii.  30)  :  "  Write  ye 
down  this  man  childless;  a  man  that  shall  not  prosper 
in  his  days ;  for  none  of  his  seed  shall  sit  in  prosperity 
on  the  throne  of  David,  or  rule  any  more  my  people 
Israel."  But,  according  to  1  Chr.  hi.  17  if.,  Jehoiachin 
had  several  sons  in  captivity  (cf.  §  1081),  and  Zerubbabel, 
the  hero  of  the  Return,  was  his  grandson.  Moreover,  ac- 
cording to  the  genealogy  of  Matt.  i.  12  ff.,  he  thus  be- 
came an  ancestor  of  the  Saviour  of  the  world. 


CHAPTER   VII 

JEREMIAH   AND    JUUAHS    LAST   PROBATION 

§  1148.  Our  narrative  of  the  later  history  of  Israel, 
and  our  review  of  the  story  in  the  light  of  prophetical 
comment,  have  brought  us  to  the  first  great  captivity  of 
Jmlah  and  Jerusalem.  Upon  the  throne  left  vacant  by 
the  banishment  of  Jehoiachin,  his  uncle  Mattaniah  ("  Gift 
of  Jehovah  "),  the  youngest  son  of  Josiah,  was  placed  by 
Nebuchadrezzar,  his  name  being  changed  to  Zedekiah 
( ••  .My  Righteousness  is  Jehovah")  to  indicate  the  change 
of  relation  (cf.  §  1040).  This  new  epithet  possibly  had 
reference  to  the  solemn  oath  which  he  took  before  his  own 
God  (2  Clir.  xxxvi.  13;  Ez.  xvii.  18  ff.)  to  be  a  faithful 
vassal  to  the  Chaldsean  king.  His  reign  was  one  of  the 
most  unfortunate  in  the  annals  of  royalty.  His  evil  fate 
must  be  attributed  in  part  to  his  unhappy  circumstances* 
and  in  some  degree  also  to  his  own  folly  and  weakness. 
From  the  historical  books  of  the  Old  Testament  we  get- 
but  little  actual  knowledge  of  the  earlier  and  longer  part 
of  his  reign.  We  are  therefore  the  more  indebted  to  the 
prophets  Jeremiah  and  Ezekiel  for  information  which  to 
some  extent  supplies  the  want.  Indeed,  so  large  a  part 
docs  prophecy  play  in  the  subsequent  history  till  the  close 
of  the  Exile,  that  it  naturally  weaves  itself  into  our  narra- 
tive as  one  of  the  elements  of  a  single  story. 

§1149.  The  prominence  of  these  two  great  prophets, 
the  one  in  Jerusalem  and  the  other  among  the  exiles  in 
Babylon  (§  1174  ff.),  is  suggestive  of  the  changes  that  came 
with  the  collapse  of  the    kingdom.      Jeremiah  was  left 

227 


228  JEREMIAH'S    POSITION    IMPROVED  Book  X 

behind  by  the  ChakUean  authorities,  probably  because  he 
might  be  defended  upon  to  exercise  a  conservative  influ- 
ence upon  the  new  and  struggling  administration.  Hence 
he   became   relatively   more    important    in    a    community 

depleted  of  its  strongest  personal  elements.  Again, 
the  fulfilment  of  his  predictions  gave  popular  prestige 
for  the  moment  not  merely  to  himself,  but  also  to  the 
prophetical  school  or  party  of  which  he  "was  the  head. 
Accordingly,  his  oracular  utterances  were  listened  to  for 
a  time  with  deference,  if  not  with  approval,  and.  though 
finally  opposed  even  with  violence,  he  was  henceforth 
more  sure  of  himself  and  moved  among  the  higher  circles 
of  his  people  with  less  apprehension.  Moreover.  Zedekiah 
and  his  immediate  surrounding  were  quite  different  in 
character  from  the  king  and  nobles  who  had  silenced  Jere- 
miah. Zedekiah,  naturally  self-distrustful,  was  little 
likely  to  be  overbearing  and  intolerant  with  the  burden 
upon  him  of  a  fallen  cause  and  dilapidated  kingdom. 
Thus  we  never  find  him  personally  resentful  toward 
Jeremiah,  though  so  often  upbraided  and  condemned  by 
the  plain-spoken  prophet. 

§  1150.  These  conditions  provided  Jeremiah  with  a 
motive  to  active  work  such  as  had  hitherto  been  denied  to 
him.  The  revolution  thus  marks  an  epoch  in  his  public 
life,  in  his  personal  experience,  and  in  his  literary  career. 
In  a  man  of  his  brooding  introspective  disposition,  and 
yet  of  ardent  impulse,  intense  action  is  needed  to  bring 
out  the  highest  possibilities  of  his  nature,  as  the  lark 
cannot  sing  until  it  flutters  its  wings  and  rises  above 
the  earth  where  it  is  wont  to  nestle.  One  remarkable 
result  of  his  unimpeded  energy  is  seen  in  the  absence  of 
querulousness  and  self-distrust  in  all  the  later  prophecies 
of  Jeremiah,  as  contrasted  with  those  of  the  period  of 
Jehoiakim.1 

1  The  perception  of  this  fact  might  perhaps  have  prevented  Cornill 
from  assigning  Jer.  xx.  7-18  to  the  period  of  Zedekiah  ;  see  his  Text  of 
tin'  Book  of  Jeremiah,  p.  28. 


Ch.  VII,  §  1152      ZEDEKIAH   AND    Ills    PEOPLE  229 

§  1151.  Of  Zedekiah,  the  other  outstanding  figure  in 
Jerusalem,  one  could  wish  to  say  something  more  favour- 
able than  that  he  was  lenient  and  forbearing  toward  the 
stern  and  unbending  prophet  of  Jehovah.  But  it  is  im- 
possible lor  the  impartial  historian  to  set  down  much  in 
his  praise.  He  was  but  twenty-one  when  he  came  to  the 
throne,  and  he  had  to  rule  a  set  of  poverty-stricken,  shift- 
less people,  headed  by  turbulent,  intriguing  princes  and 
nobles.  Thus  he  had  a  task  of  almost  insuperable  diffi- 
culty to  fulfil,  and  his  failure  does  not  of  itself  deserve 
condemnation.  But  he  was  no  ruler  of  men.  Perhaps  lie 
assumed  the  throne  unwillingly.  At  any  rate,  he  never 
played  the  king,  and  at  critical  times  admitted  to  his  own 
courtiers  their  superior  power  (Jer.  xxxviii.  5).  He  was 
not  petulant  or  headstrong,  like  Jehoiakim,  but  rather 
timid  and  vacillating.  With  good  intentions,  he  yet 
failed  signally  in  two  capital  affairs  of  state.  Though 
aeeessible  to  the  prophetic  word  he  tolerated  all  sorts  of 
abuses  in  the  public  services  of  religion,  even  to  the  gross- 
est idolatry  (§  1155,  1183  ff.).  Again,  as  a  sworn  vassal 
of  Nebuchadrezzar,  it  was  his  plain  interest,  as  well  as  his 
duty  to  his  declining  kingdom  and  war-cursed  people,  to 
remain  the  friend  and  confidant  of  the  great  Chahhean.  Yet 
he  allowed  himself  to  drift  away  from  his  allegiance  and 
to  make  a  league  with  foreign  conspirators  whose  alliance 
had  been  for  five  generations  the  snare  and  bane  of  Israel. 

§  1152.  And  what  of  the  people  whom  the  unhappy 
young  king  was  called  to  govern?  To  understand  their 
condition  we  must  look  at  the  character  and  results  of 
the  Chahhean  invasion.  Ordinarily,  under  the  original 
Assyrian  regime,  deportation  was  accompanied  by  the 
total  subversion  of  the  state  (§  288  f.).  In  such  a  case 
the  suzerain  became  the  actual  ruler,  entered  into  pos- 
session of  the  forfeited  territory,  and  administered  it 
directly  through  his  officers.  Though  Nebuchadrezzar  did 
not  deal  with  Judah  in  this  fashion,  he  made  no  pro- 
vision   for  the  rehabilitation  of     the  prostrate   kingdom. 


230  A   SOCIAL    REVOLUTION  Book  X 

After  the  terrible  chastisement  it  was  left  to  shift  for 
itself,  and  the  luckless  remnant  of  the  population  were 
an  object  of  solicitude  to  the  head  of  the  empire  only  in 
connection  with  their  payment  of  tribute.  Hence,  after 
the  selection  and  deportation  of  the  captives  had  been 
accomplished,  the  Chaldeean  government  ceased  to  have 
anything  to  do  with  the  internal  affairs  of  Judah  and 
Jerusalem.  Its  duties  to  the  rebel  state  ended  with  call- 
ing off  the  auxiliary  bands  of  marauders  (§  1078)  and 
withdrawing  the  imperial  army  of  occupation.  There 
was,  apparently,  even  no  resident  agent  to  look  after  the 
revenue  or  to  report  to  the  court  at  Babylon  matters  that 
touched  the  welfare  of  the  empire  (cf.  Ez.  xvii.  13  f., 
§  1156). 

§  1153.  The  matters  of  most  pressing  concern  to 
the  remaining  Judaites  were  the  readjustment  of  private 
property  and  the  raising  of  the  tribute.  The  former 
process  must  have  amounted  to  a  complete  social  revolu- 
tion, since,  with  the  exception  of  some  of  the  officials, 
only  the  poorest  of  the  people  were  left  behind.  The 
details  of  the  new  allotment  we  do  not  know.  It  goes 
without  saying  that  many  bondmen  and  debtors  would  be 
freed,  and  that  in  the  redistribution  many  fortunes  would 
go  to  unworthy  proprietors.  In  the  scramble  for  wealth 
the  deserving  would  often  be  thrust  aside,  and  enmities 
created  without  number,  which  would  continue  to  increase 
the  social  disturbance  consequent  upon  the  revolution. 
All  this  would  happen  in  spite  of  the  best  attempts  of  the 
king's  officers  to  do  justice.  There  is  one  circumstance, 
however,  which  must  have  lessened  the  chances  of  a 
wholesale  sequestration  of  property.  Ezekiel,  writing  in 
the  ninth  year  of  this  captivity  (ch.  xxiv.  21),  speaks  of 
the  fate  of  sons  and  daughters  left  behind  in  the  home- 
land. When  such  were  found  their  claims  to  the  ancestral 
property  were  doubtless  respected.  Besides,  the  nearest 
of  kin  to  the  exiles  would  often  be  appointed  trustees 
for  the  absentees  or  agents  for  the  sale  of  their  estates. 


Ch.  VII,  §  1155    TRIBUTE-PAYING   AND   SEDITION  2:51 

§  1154.  The  payment  of  the  tribute  was  of  most  per- 
manent practical  concern  to  king  and  people.  As  it  was 
to  be  sent  yearly  to  Babylon,  the  question  of  ways  and 
means  became  at  once  a  matter  of  urgency.  A  more 
embarrassing  situation  can  scarcely  be  imagined.  The 
chief  difficulty  was  created  by  the  fact  that  those  who 
were  looked  to  as  tax-payers  were,  for  the  most  part, 
unused  to  the  duties  of  freeholders  and  must  have  grudged 
every  shekel  which  they  were  forced  to  give.  At  best, 
the  raising  of  the  first  year's  contribution  was  a  terrible 
drain  upon  the  impoverished  and  newly  enfranchised 
classes  of  the  community.  If  a  strong  man  had  been  at 
the  head  of  affairs,  —  to  use  the  phrase  of  Ezekiel  (xxii. 
30;  cf.  xiii.  10  if.),  one  who  would  repair  the  wall  and 
stand  in  the  breach  on  behalf  of  the  people,  —  or  if  there 
had  been  patriotic  counsellors  in  the  cabinet,  order,  tran- 
quillity, and  a  working  fiscal  system  might  have  been 
established.  But  all  that  we  can  learn  as  to  the  conduct 
of  the  government  goes  to  show  that  with  the  passing  of 
the  years  of  Zedekiah's  reign  the  rulers  became  less  able 
to  cope  with  their  difficulties.  Thus,  the  dreadful  alter- 
native of  rebellion,  perhaps  urged  upon  them  at  first 
against  their  will,  became  ever  more  welcome  to  them 
as  the  lesser  of  the  two  evils.  The  complications  were 
added  to  by  the  condition  and  conduct  of  the  surround- 
ing peoples,  Samaritans,  Ammonites,  Moabites,  Edomites, 
Philistines  of  one  city  or  another.  All  of  these  were 
communities  of  little  wealth  or  responsibility,  and  of 
slight  financial  importance  to  the  common  suzerain.  But 
we  know  that  some  of  them  greatly  troubled  the  Judaites 
(Jer.  xxvii.  3)  by  their  seditious  intrigues.  It  was 
natural  that  the  citizens  of  Jerusalem,  thinking  of  the 
lighter  burdens  of  their  neighbours,  would  find  in  the 
contrast  to  their  own  grievous  imposts  an  additional 
motive  to  throw  off  the  yoke  of  Babylon. 

§  1155.      Besides   the   social   troubles    and    the    money 
question,    the  religious  condition  of  the   people  was  an 


232  RELIGION   UNDER   ZEDEKIAH  Book  X 

additional  element  of  disorder  and  discontent.  The 
stereotyped  phrase  of  2  K.  xxiv.  1!»  declares  that  Zede- 
kiah  "did  evil  in  the  sight  of  Jehovah  according  to  all 
that  Jehoiakim  had  done."  Under  his  regime  the  popu- 
lar religion  was  still  of  that  merely  conventional  kind 
which  tolerated  any  traditional  mode  of  worship,  any 
Canaan itish  or  Babylonian  cult,  as  of  equal  ceremonial 
value  with  the  direct  and  exclusive  service  of  Jehovah. 
It,  indeed,  often  combined  the  one  with  the  other,  or  even 
sometimes  gave  the  preference  to  foreign  abominations. 
And  yet  to  the  opponents  of  the  school  of  Jeremiah, 
whether  of  high  or  of  low  degree,  Jehovah  was  still  the 
supreme  deity,  and  the  ascertainment  of  his  will  was  the 
great  business  of  prophecy.  Thus  we  have  on  the  one 
hand  the  practice  of  the  grossest  and  most  grotesque 
usages  of  heathenism  (Ezek.  viii.  ;  §  1182  ff.)  on  the 
part  of  representative  men ;  and  on  the  other  the  defiant 
assertion  of  a  rival  prophet,  their  oracle  and  champion, 
that  he  knew  the  mind  of  Jehovah  better  than  did  Jere- 
miah himself  (Jer.  xxviii.  1  ff.). 

§  115G.  Such  worship  of  Jehovah  expressed  itself  some- 
what in  this  fashion:  "Jehovah  is  the  God  of  the  nation. 
He  cannot  abandon  his  people  utterly  or  finally.  It  is 
true,  he  has  permitted  a  calamity  to  fall  upon  us.  But  it 
is  not  so  great  as  we  thought  it  at  first.  We  are  still 
a  people.  Like  other  nations  in  our  position  we  were 
not  entirely  subverted,  and  that  meddlesome  Jeremiah 
only  guessed  half  of  the  truth  after  all.  We  are  still  the 
most  important  nation  of  the  whole  coast-land.  Other 
peoples  are  coming  to  us  for  countenance  and  support 
(cf.  Jer.  xxv ii.  3).  Our  brethren  in  exile  are  not  dis- 
persed among  the  nations,  and  they  Mill  soon  return  to 
our  side  (cf.  Jer.  xxviii.  4).  Our  preservation  is  a  proof 
that  Jehovah  intends  us  to  beat  down  our  enemies. 
Babylon  will  come  to  an  end  like  Nineveh,  and  the 
house  of  David  shall  be  established  for  ever."  Thus 
was  the  phantom  of  independence  pursued  till  the  very 


Cm.  VII,  §  1157  BEGINNINGS   OF   REVOLT  233 

form  and  substance  of  national  existence  were  lost.  Ac- 
cording  to  Ezekiel  (xvii.  13  f.)  "the  king  of  Babylon 
took  away  the  mighty  of  the  land,  that  the  kingdom  might 
be  made  base,  that  it  might  not  lift  itself  up,  but  that  by 
keeping  his  covenant  it  might  endure."  He  did  not  know 
the  capacity  of  resistance  and  self-assertion  left  in  the 
little  kingdom' — the  fermenting  spirit  that  lingered  in 
the  very  dregs  of  the  wine  bottle  which  lie  had  decanted.1 
§  1157.  Already,  early  in  the  fourth  year  (50-1  B.C.), 
the  people  seemed  ripe  for  revolt.  At  least,  the  discon- 
tented communities  round  about  hoped  to  bring  them  to 
open  insurrection  (§  1151).  A  combined  embassy,  with 
this  end  in  view,  was  sent  from  the  kings  of  Edom, 
Ammon,  Moab,  Tyre,  and  Sidon  (Jer.  xxvii.  3  f.). 
Their  arrival  brought  into  sharper  antagonism  the  revo- 
lutionary and  the  conservative  elements  in  the  state. 
The  professed  prophets  of  Jehovah,  looked  up  to  by 
both  parties  (§  1155),  were  now  in  greater  vogue  and 
estimation  than  they  had  been  since  the  days  of  Josiah. 
They  had  the  ear  of  king,  court,  and  people.  Jeremiah 
appears  to  have  taken  the  initiative  (xxvii.  5-22).  He 
addressed  a  message  to  the  intriguing  kings  through  the 
ambassadors,  to  the  effect  that  Jehovah,  the  creator  and 
ruler  of  the  earth,  had  given  the  whole  known  world  into 
the  hand  of  Nebuchadrezzar,  king  of  Babylon,  his  "ser- 
vant" (cf.  Jer.  xxv.  0  and  §  1115);  that  the  nation  which 
would  not  submit  to  him  should  be  punished  with  the 
sword  and  famine  and  pestilence;  that  the  prophets, 
diviners,  dreamers,  soothsayers,  and  sorcerers,  who  had 
advised  them  to  revolt,  had  merely  uttered  falsehoods. 
To  Zedekiah  also  the  word  was  sent,  that  he  ami  his 
people  should  "bring  their  necks  under  the  yoke  of  the 
king  of  Babylon  and  live,"  that  they  must    turn   a   deal' 

1 1  use  the  phrase  of  Jer.  xlviii.  11  and  cf  Charles  Reade,  '/'Ac  Cloister 
mill  thr  Hearth,  ch.  xxxiii.  when'  the  greal  dramatist  suggests  the  horrors 
ef  deportation  by  making  us  sec  and  feci  how  sad  a  thing  it  is  even  mi  the 
smallest  scale  and  in  the  least  distressing  form, 


2U  A   BELLICOSE    PROPHET  Book  X 

ear  to  the  prophets  who  were  advising  insurrection.  An 
appeal  was  also  made  to  the  national  pride  in  the  temple 
and  its  appointments.  The  priests  were  addressed,  per- 
haps for  the  first  and  only  time  (xxvii.  10),  and  were  told 
that  in  ease  of  a  revolt  the  sacred  vessels  still  remaining 
from  the  calamity  of  Jehoiachin  would  be  carried  away 
to  Babylon,  whereas  the  opposing  prophets  had  actually 
declared  that  those  already  deported  would  soon  be  re- 
stored. 

§  1158.  Provoked  by  these  utterances,  with  their  pun- 
gent rhetoric,  the  official  rivals  of  Jeremiah  at  once  took 
up  the  public  challenge.  A  dramatic  scene  was  enacted 
when  a  certain  leader  among  them,  from  the  priestly  city 
of  Gibeon  (cf.  Josh.  xxi.  13,  17),  Hananiah  byname,  him- 
self also  perhaps  a  priest,  confronted  Jeremiah  in  the  temple 
in  the  presence  of  the  priests  and  the  worshippers.  Jere- 
miah, to  make  his  message  more  impressive,  had  illus- 
trated his  references  to  the  yoke  of  Nebuchadrezzar  by 
wearing  in  public  a  wooden  yoke  upon  his  own  shoulders. 
His  antagonist,  full  of  the  schemes  for  revolt  to  which 
he  was  a  party,  and  pressing  for  speedy  action,  boldly 
declared,  in  the  name  of  Jehovah  of  Hosts,  the  God  of 
Israel,  that  the  yoke  of  Babjdon  would  be  broken  within 
two  full  years,  that  the  vessels  of  the  temple  and  Jehoia- 
chin himself  would  be  restored  to  Jerusalem  along  with 
all  his  fellow-captives  (Jer.  xxviii.  1-4).  This  was  a 
much  more  satisfactory  announcement  than  any  which 
Jeremiah  could  make.  It  suited  the  popular  mood  and 
temper  exactly,  and  must  have  made  a  hero  of  Hananiah 
on  the  instant.  Besides,  it  had  the  merit  of  explicit ness, 
and  a  reasonably  brief  time  limit  was  set  as  a  test  of  its 
verity.  The  main  objection  to  it  was  that  to  have  the 
test  applied  would  involve  the  experiment  of  a  rebellion 
against  the  most  formidable  power  in  the  world,  which 
had  already  brought  Jerusalem  and  its  beloved  temple  to 
the  verge  of  destruction,  and  had  only  given  them  a  par- 
tial respite  by  exceptional  clemency. 


Ch.  VII,  §1159  A   SPECTACULAR    DEBATE  235 

§  1159.  To  offset  this  seductive  promise,  Jeremiah 
could  only  express  his  sympathy  with  the  patriotic  desire 
for  the  return  of  the  sacred  vessels  and  the  captives,  but 
lie  udded  the  warning  to  Hananiah  that  just  as  in  the 
former  days,  the  surest  test  of  a  prophet's  divine  commis- 
sion is  the  fulfilment  of  his  specific  predictions  (vs.  G-9). 
This  was  virtually  an  assertion  by  Jeremiah  of  his  own 
superior  credentials  and  authority,  which  could  not  be  put 
down  by  a  counterclaim  on  the  part  of  his  rival.  Hana- 
niah then  resorted  to  something  more  spectacular  and 
impressive.  He  took  the  bar  of  the  yoke  that  was  on  the 
neck  of  Jeremiah  and  broke  it  before  the  people,  saying, 
in  the  name  of  Jehovah,  "Even  so  will  I  break  the  yoke 
of  Nebuchadrezzar,  king  of  Babylon,  within  two  full 
years,  from  off  the  neck  of  all  the  nations."  As  there 
was  nothing  more  that  could  be  well  said  or  done,  Jere- 
miah went  his  way  1  (vs.  10,  11).  This,  however,  was  not 
to  be  the  end  of  the  matter.  A  revelation  came  to  Jere- 
miah soon  thereafter,  that  the  yoke  of  wood  should  become 
a  yoke  of  iron,2  for  Jehovah  had  put  jTokes  of  iron  upon 
the  necks  of  all  the  nations  so  that  they  might  serve  the 
king  of  Babylon.  He  addressed  Hananiah  as  follows: 
"Hear  now,  Hananiah,  Jehovah  hath  not  sent  thee,  but 
thou  makest  this  people  trust  in  falsehoods.  Therefore 
thus  saith  Jehovah,  'Behold  I  will  send  thee  away  from 
off  the  face  of  the  earth;  this  year  thou  shalt  die,  for  thou 

1  Cornill's  usual  sagacity  fails  him  in  rejecting  the  last  sentence  of 
v.  11,  which  stands  in  the  Sept.  and  all  the  other  versions.  He  says  ••  it, 
would  be  utter  nonsense  to  suppose  that  the  prophet,  after  this  action, 
goes  quietly  home  and  dors  not  speak  what  follows  till  several  days  have 
passed"  (Tex/  of  JiTcmiah,  p.  71  ).  Bui  there  is  no  indication  that  sev- 
eral days  passed  between  the  two  encounters.  On  the  contrary,  the 
language  of  v.  1l'  implies,  according  to  Hebrew  usage,  that  the  second 
interview  followed  very  close  upon  the  first.  Most  probably  it  occurred 
the  very  same  day,  while  the  people  were  still  discussing  the  question  of 

the  hour;  and    Hananiah   may   have   remained   to   make  the  most    of  the 
impression   already   excited. 

-In  xxviii.  13,  for  ••thou  shalt  make,"  read,  according  to  the  Sept., 

"  I  will  make." 


236  MISTAKEN  PATRIOTISM  Book  X 

hast  spoken  sedition  against  Jehovah.'  *  And,  as  a  mat- 
ter of  fact,  Hananiah  died  two  months  after  the  public 
controversy.  Thus  the  victory  remained  finally  with 
Jeremiah,  the  prophet  of  the  greater  resource. 

§  1160.  We  can  hardly  regret  the  issue,  though  we 
may  recoil  from  the  violent  measures  that  preceded  it. 
We  need  not  suppose  that  the  death  of  Hananiah  was 
accelerated  by  remorse  for  evil  deeds.  Professional 
prophet  as  he  was  (§  1066),  he  was  no  conscious  deceiver, 
though  he  was  a  mischievous  fanatic.  The  folly  of  his 
policy  did  not  wholly  consist  in  its  short-sighted  ignoring 
of  the  logic  of  events.  The  fact  that  he  had  the  evil 
elements  in  the  state  at  his  back  should  have  made  him 
hesitate  about  promoting  their  designs.  Doubtless  many 
plausible  reasons  suggested  themselves  to  him  in  justifi- 
cation of  his  course  (cf.  §  1154).  At  bottom  his  error 
was  the  still  very  common  one  of  imagining  that  true 
patriotism  demands  resistance  to  a  foreign  yoke,  at  any 
moral  or  material  cost.  He  stood  rather  for  Jehovah  king 
of  Zion  than  for  Jehovah  king  of  righteousness ;  and  he 
became  a  victim  of  the  stern  exigencies  of  the  conflict 
that  was  waged  upon  that  issue.1 

§  1161.  The  advocates  of  rebellion  now  ceased  their 
agitation  for  a  time,  partly,  we  may  assume,  on  account  of 
the  signal  triumph  of  Jeremiah.  The  death  of  Hananiah 
gave  him  a  momentary  ascendency  in  Jerusalem,  and  lie 
used  his  advantage  to  the  full.  It  is  to  this  period  that 
we  have  to  assign  the  remarkable  series  of  discourses  con- 
tained in  chs.  xxii.  and  xxiii.  of  his  book.  The  reminis- 
cences of  the  earlier  reigns  (xxii.  10—30)  we  have  already 
dealt  with  (§  1030,  1122,  1144).  They  were  intended  to 
point  a  moral  for  Zedekiah,  who  is  adjured  (xxii.  1-9)  to 
execute  justice  and  righteousness,  and  deliver  the  wronged 

1  The  case  of  Hananiah  is  well  treated  by  Bennett,  The  Book  of  Jere- 
miah,  xxi.-lii..  p.  115  ft'.  His  conflict  with  Jeremiah  is  discussed  by 
Professor  Konig,  of  Rostock  (now  of  Bonn),  in  the  Sunday  School  Times, 
Nov.  '-'(J,  1898,  not  quite  impartially. 


Ch.  VII,  §  1162       KINGS   AND   PROPHETS   INDICTED  237 

from  the  hand  of  the  oppressor.  If  this  saving  counsel 
were  heeded,  even  his  own  tottering  throne  would  be  made 
perpetual  ;  but  if  not,  the  royal  house  should  become  a 
desolation.  "For  thus  saith  Jehovah:  Thou  art  Gilead 
to  me  and  the  summit  of  Lebanon,  yet  I  will  make  of  thee 
a  wilderness  and  eities  uninhabited."  Then  the  rulers  of 
the  people  generally  are  addressed  by  Jehovah  under  the 
name  of."  the  shepherds  that  destroy  and  scatter  the  sheep 
of  my  pasture"  (xxiii.  1-4).  In  contrast  to  these  recre- 
ants and  the  unworthy  kings  just  characterized,  the  great 
declaration  is  made  :  k*  Behold  the  days  are  coming,  saith 
Jehovah,  when  I  will  raise  up  to  David  a  righteous  scion. 
and  he  shall  reign  as  king  and  deal  wisely,  and  shall  do 
justice  and  righteousness  in  the  land  .  .  .  and  this  is 
the  name  wherewith  he  shall  be  called,  'Jehovah  is  our 
Righteousness '  "  1  (xxiii.  5,  tj).  To  this  is  appended  the 
magnificent  conception  so  characteristic  of  Jeremiah,  that 
the  time  would  come  when  even  the  deliverance  from 
Egypt  should  be  held  as  insignificant  compared  with  the 
restoration  of  the  exiles  from  all  their  places  of  captivity 
(xxiii.  7,  8  ;  cf.  xvi.  14  f.). 

§  1162.  But  it  is  to  "  the  prophets  "  that  Jeremiah 
mainly  devoted  himself  during  this  crisis.  This  was  the 
opportunity  of  his  life  to  deal  with  his  rivals  on  equal 
terms.  He  had  before  said  many  bitter  words  and  made 
many  complaints  against  them  ;  now  he  arraigns  them 
formally,  on  well-considered  grounds.  Some  of  the  main 
]  mil  its  in  the  indictment  are  these:  He  declares  that  lie  is 
completely  stunned  and  unmanned  because  of  the  awful 
consequences,  past,  present,  and  to  come,  of  the  wickedness 
of  the  people  to  which  they  have  been  instigated  by  priests 

and  prophets,  so  that  the  land   has  heeii  made  like  Sodom 

and  Gomorrah  (xxiii.  9—15).     To  distinguish  between  the 

true  and  false  prophets  he  claims  that  the  latter  utter  a 
\ ision  out  of  their  own  mind,  and  not  the  word  of  Jehovah 

1  'With  evident  reference  to  the  name  "  Zedekiah  "  (S  L148). 


238  THE    DOWNFALL   OF    ELAM  Book  X 

(v.  10  :  cf.  xiv.  1-1).  They  also  invariably  promise  good 
fortune  to  the  wicked,  an  impossible  event  in  the  very 
nature  of  things  (  vs.  17-20).  Moreover,  if  they  had  been 
in  the  counsel  of  Jehovah,  they  would  have  turned  the 
people  from  their  evil  ways  and  deeds  (vs.  21,  22). 
Jehovah,  who  fills  heaven  and  earth,  sees  through  even 
the  most  plausible  delusion  and  exposes  the  pretence  of 
impostors.  The}'  rely  merely  upon  empty  dreams.  But 
the  true  prophet  receives  and  declares  the  immediate 
word  of  Jehovah.  The  one  is  chaff  ;  the  other  wheat. 
In  contrast  to  the  elusive  and  unsubstantial  dream,  the 
genuine  word  is  "  like  a  fire  and  like  a  hammer  that  breaks 
the  rock  in  pieces"  (vs.  23-29). 

§  1163.  Intense  as  was  Jeremiah's  anxiety  for  the  moral 
betterment  and  political  safety  of  his  fellow-citizens,  he 
was  not  so  preoccupied  as  to  ignore  the  condition  and 
the  fate  of  his  brethren  in  exile.  Indeed,  at  this  very 
moment,  his  mind  was  exercised  about  the  final  fate  not 
only  of  Judah  in  bondage  at  home  anil  far  away,  but  also  of 
the  Babylonian  oppressor  whose  fall  was  to  bring  about  the 
liberation  of  his  people  (rL  Jer.  xxv.  12  ff . ;  xxvii.  7.  22). 
Such  is  the  motive  of  his  utterance  made  "  in  the  begin- 
ning of  the  reign  of  Zedekiah ''  (Jer.  xlix.  34  ff.)  1  with 
regard  to  the  downfall  of  Elam.  In  this  passage,  the 
impending  subjugation  of  Elam  is  announced.  The  con- 
quering people  are  not  named ;  but  it  is  not  difficult  to 
find  out  who  they  were.  The  time  limit  is  fixed  by  the 
representation  of  Ezekiel  (xxxii.  24  f  .)  regarding  Elam  in 
586  B.C.  (xxxii.  17),  according  to  which  that  country 
had  lately  been  crushed  by  a  foreign  power.  On  the  other 
hand,  Elam  had  a  king  of  its  own  in  604  B.C.  (Jer.  xxv.  25). 
The  prophecy  was  presumably  uttered  in  connection  with 
the  military  preparations  that  were   being  made  by  the 

1  The  irenuineness  of  this  prophecy  lias  been  disputed  by  several  crit- 
ics, e.a.  by  Giesebrecht,  Das  V>">h  Jeremia,  p.  245  f.  His  principal  ob- 
jection is  that  '-a  special  oracle  against  Elam  in  the  time  of  Jeremiah  is 
very  surprising  in  view  of  the  great  distance  of  the  Elamites  from  Juda±a." 


Ch.  VII,  §  1165        THOUGHTS   OF   THE    EXILES  239 

aggressive  power,  and  -which  were  known  to  the  Hebrews  in 
exile  as  well  as  to  other  residents  of  Babylonia.  Accord- 
ingly the  fall  of  Elam  took  place  about  595  B.C.,1  when  it 
became  subject  to  the  little  kingdom  of  Persis.  Thus 
Jeremiah,  the  prophet  of  exile,  links  himself  with  the  earli- 
est of  those  movements  which  finally  led  to  the  overthrow 
of  the  Chaldsean  power  and  the  liberation  of  his  people 
from  their  captivity  by  Cyrus,  "king  of  Anshan  "  (Elam), 
'•king  of  Persia/"  ami  "king  of  Babylon  "  (§  1382  ff.). 

§  11(34.  This  was  the  most  wide-reaching  of  the  visions 
of  Jeremiah.  His  thoughts,  which  so  often  crossed  the 
Desert  and  the  River,  lingered  among  the  canals,  the 
pasture-grounds,  and  the  templed  cities  of  Babylonia. 
Many  of  the  companions  of  his  youth  were  there.  There 
were  those  who  had  sheltered  him  from  cruel  wrong  in 
his  lifelong  struggle,  those  by  whom  he  had  once  hoped 
to  save  the  state  of  Israel.  There  were  his  best  pupils 
in  the  school  of  prophecy,  above  all,  the  idealistic,  intrepid 
Ezekiel,  to  whom  he  had  bequeathed  the  spiritual  guidance 
of  the  colony.  There  was  the  better  part  of  Israel  awaiting 
its  purification  and  deliverance.  He  was  also  supported  in 
this  sentimental  regard  for  the  remnant  of  Israel  in  cap- 
tivity by  the  close  political  and  civil  relations  maintained 
with  them  from  the  beginning  by  the  people  of  Jerusalem. 

§  1165.  Captivity  could  not  sever  the  bond  that  united 
the  exiles  with  the  home-land,  because  their  solidarity  was 
not  merely  political  or  social.  The  blow  dealt  by  Nebu- 
chadrezzar to  Judah  was  one  almost  to  the  death  ;  but 
scarcely  had  it  been  given  when  the  perpetual  paradox  of 
Israel's  vitality  asserted  itself  in  a  new  and  surprising 
form.  The  hope  of  the  ultimate  redemption  of  their 
people  was  a  necessary  part  of  the  faith  of  the  true 
prophets ;  and  as  the  prospect  of  a  regeneration  in 
Jehovah's  own  land  grew  faint,  the  assurance  was  more 
and  more  borne   in  upon   them    that  it  would  be  accom- 

1  Cf.  Meyer,  G.A.  I,  §  40(3,  who,  from  tin-  same  data,  chooses  696  as 
the  year  of  the  Persian  conquesl  of  Elam. 


240  GOOD    AND    BAD    FIGS  Book  X 

plished  by  the  discipline  of  exile.  Thus  what  had  been 
regarded  and  set  forth  as  the  climax  of  all  national  and 
personal  woes  (§  301 ;  cf.  §  1039  and  Deut.  xxviii.  04  ff.) 
came  to  be  viewed  and  dealt  with  as  a  saving  and  puri- 
fying process  of  education.  Hence  an  interest  in  the  ab- 
sentees of  Israel  began  to  be  cherished  by  the  prophets 
proportionate  to  their  despair  of  the  remnant  which  sought 
to  maintain  the  throne  of  David  in  Jerusalem. 

§  1166.  This  new  attitude  of  prophecy  is  vividly  shown 
in  a  "vision"  of  Jeremiah,  vouchsafed  to  him  apparently 
very  soon  after  the  departure  of  Jehoiachin  and  his  fellow- 
exiles  (Jer.  xxiv.  1  ff.).  Two  baskets  of  figs  placed  as  an 
offering  before  the  temple,  the  one  of  them  having  very 
good  and  the  other  very  bad  fruit,  set  forth  respectively 
the  exiles  and  the  people  of  Jerusalem.1  The  former 
were  to  be  built  up  and  restored  to  their  homes,  and 
should  return  to  Jehovah  with  their  whole  heart.  The 
latter  were  to  be  tossed  hither  and  thither  among  the 
nations  and  be  consumed  by  the  sword  and  famine  and 
pestilence.  The  central  and  essential  truth  of  this  pre- 
diction is  a  matter  of  history.  With  the  hyperbole  that 
marks  the  representation  the  readers  of  prophecy  are 
familiar. 

§  1167.  The  first  steps  in  the  struggle  against  the  revo- 
lutionists at  home  had  ended  with  the  death  of  Hananiah 
(§  1159).  The  danger  of  rebellion  had  passed  for  the  time. 
But  a  new  danger  had  been  aroused  by  the  agitation.  The 
embassy  of  the  neighbours  of  Judah  apparently  excited 
the  suspicions  of  Nebuchadrezzar.  At  any  rate  Zedekiah 
and  the  court  found  it  advisable  to  send  messengers  to 

1  With  them  are  associated  "those  that  dwell  in  the  land  of  Egypt" 
(xxiv.  8).  This  division  of  the  dispersed  of  Israel  included  not  only  those 
who  were  carried  away  with  Jehoahaz  (§  1000),  but  probably  many  fugi- 
tives also,  who  would  attach  themselves  to  the  little  colony  as  to  a 
nucleus.  The  reference  is  instructive,  (1)  as  it  sets  forth  the  disfavour 
with  which  Egypt  was  always  regarded  by  the  prophets  ;  (2)  as  it  illus- 
trates the  hopelessness  of  any  sort  of  association  with  "  Kahab  "  (Isa. 
xxx.  7)  and  its  futile  intrigues  and  alliances. 


Ch.  VII,  §  1109       A    DEPUTATION   AND    A    LETTER  241 

Babylonia  to  assure  him  of  their  loyalty.1  The  legates 
were  friends  of  Jeremiah  (Jer.  xxix.  3),  one  of  them, 
Elasah,  being  a  brother  of  Ahikam,  and  the  other,  Gema- 
riah,  son  of  Ililkiah  (§  1118).  The  opportunity  was  there- 
fore seized  by  the  prophet  to  send  a  messenger  to  the  leaders 
of  the  colony. 

§  1168.  This  letter  with  its  appendix  is  Jeremiah's 
chief  contribution  to  the  history  of  Israel  in  Exile.  Fol- 
lowing up  the  motive  of  the  vision  of  the  figs  (§  1166) 
Jeremiah  seeks  to  counteract  the  efforts  of  those  prophets 
who  were  trying  to  persuade  the  exiles  that  they  were 
soon  to  return  to  Jerusalem.  He  urges  them  to  make 
themselves  at  home  in  Babylonia,  to  build  houses,  plant 
gardens,  take  wives  and  rear  families;  also  to  seek  the 
welfare  of  the  country  of .  their  banishment,  if  it  were 
merely  for  their  own  sakes  as  its  residents.  For  there 
would  be  no  returning  to  Jerusalem  till  seventy  years 
should  pass.  Yet  Jehovah  would  watch  over  them  with 
"thoughts  of  peace  and  not  of  evil,"  and  they  would  be 
led  to  "seek  Jehovah  with  their  whole  heart."  As  for  the 
king  that  reigned  in  Jerusalem  and  his  people,  their  doom 
was  fixed  ;  Jehovah  himself  would  pursue  them  with  sword 
and  famine  and  pestilence  and  scatter  them  among  the 
nations  (xxix.  4-20). 

§  1169.  The  letter  as  it  appears  in  our  present  texts2 
contains  an  instructive  notice  (xxix.  21-32)  of  the  efforts 

1  This  cannot  have  been  the  first  rendering  of  homage  by  Zedekiah  in 
connection  with  his  accession,  as  might  be  inferred  from  xxix.  2.  for  the 
contents  of  Jeremiah's  letter  imply  that  the  colony  in  Babylonia  had  been 
in  existence  tor  some  little  time  ;  see  especially  vs.  s.  n.  15,  21,  24  if. 

- 1  agree  with  Cornill  that  vs.  -_'2  h-:\\  it  did  not  form  part  of  the  letter 
of  Jeremiah,  but  were  added  by  the  author  of  the  narrative  portion  of  the 
book.  The  answer  of  Shemaiah  to  the  letter)  vs.  26-28)  and  the  fulfil- 
ment of  the  prediction  against  Ahab  and  Zedekiah  (vs.  22  >>.  •_'•'!)  are  on 
the  face  of  them  supplementary.  Giesebrecht,  Das  Buch  •/<  >•<  miah,  p.  w, 
fil,  looks  upon  the  whole  chapter  as  part  of  the  memoirs  of  Baruch, 
of  which  vs.  3-23  contain  his  recollection  of  the  contents  of  the  letter. 
This  is  not  in  itself  impossible  ;  but  the  interpolations  are  not  in  accord- 
ance with  Baruch's  method. 


242  MISCHIEF-MAKERS   IX    EXILE  Book  X 

made  by  certain  of  the  exiles  to  break  the  force  of  Jere- 
miah's appeals  and  to  undermine  his  influence  generally 
at  home  and  abroad.  Foremost  among  them  were  three, 
named  Ahab,  Zedekiah,  and  Shemaiah.  Fired  with  mis- 
taken patriotism,  and  trusting  that  some  political  change 
might  release  them  from  captivity,  they  were  enraged  that 
Jeremiah  should  seem  to  shatter  all  hopes  of  restoration. 
It  is  not  improbable  that  Ahab  and  Zedekiah  committed 
some  overt  act  of  sedition  in  Babylonia.  It  is  significant 
that  these  ultimately  underwent  the  horrible  fate  of  being 
burnt  alive  by  Nebuchadrezzar  —  a  punishment  often 
enough  inflicted  by  Assyrian  kings  upon  rebels.1  The 
magnanimous  Nebuchadrezzar  would  scarcely  ordain  such 
a  punishment  for  any  other  crime.  The  additional  charge 
of  adultery  (v.  23)  is  an  illustration  of  the  moral  plane 
upon  which  these  degenerate  prophets  moved. 

§  1170.  The  other  case,  that  of  Shemaiah  (xxix.  24  ff.) 
throws  also  a  reflected  light  upon  affairs  at  Jerusalem. 
He  sent  a  letter  to  the  "second  priest"  Zephaniah  (see 
2  K.  xxv.  18),  citing  Jeremiah's  message  to  the  exiles  and 
imploring  him  to  use  his  authority  to  put  the  obnoxious 
fanatic  "  in  the  stocks  and  in  shackles."  Zephaniah 
contented  himself  with  reading  the  letter  to  Jeremiah, 
and  took  no  action.  The  position  of  Jeremiah  had  im- 
proved since  the  days  of  Jehoiakim.  A  priest  as  a  state 
official  is  here  called  upon  to  suppress  a  prophet  (cf. 
§  1066).  Zephaniah  is  invoked  as  an  officer  of  the  temple, 
and  the  punishment,  here  cunningly  suggested,  was  the 
same  as  that  already  inflicted  upon  Jeremiah  by  the  first 
officer  of  the  temple,  Pashhur  (§  1111).  It  is  also 
shrewdly  insinuated  in  the  description  of  Jeremiah  as 
a  crazy,  self-intoxicated  prophet  (v.  26)  that  the  public 
safety  required  his  arrest.  The  reply  of  Jeremiah  was  in 
the  form  of  a  message  to  the  whole  colony,  to  the  effect 
that  as  Shemaiah  had  usurped  the  function  of  a  prophet 

i  Cf.  KGF.  i>.  526  f.,  Tiele,  BAG.  510  f.,  and  Dan.  iii.  G  ff. 


Ch.  VII.  §  1172  PROSTRATION   OF   ZEDEKIAII  243 

of  Jehovah  he  should  be  left  childless  among  his  people. 
What  a  vivid  picture  these  incidents  give  us  of  the  per- 
petual strife  between  the  claimants  to  divine  inspiration  ! 
And  what  a  background  do  we  see!  A  half-desperate 
people  are  looking  continually  for  direction  to  their 
spiritual  guides,  and  are  only  brought  to  a  temporary 
acquiescence  in  right  principles  by  the  triumph  of  a  true 
prophet  through  an  appeal  to  the  divine  vengeance! 
Three  times  have  we  seen  Jeremiah  vanquish  an  oppo- 
nent by  cursing  him  in  the  name  of  Jehovah  (cf.  §  1159, 
1169). 

§  1171.  The  embassy  sent  by  the  king  of  Judah  seems 
not  to  have  satisfied  Xebuchadrezzar.  The  Great  Kino- 
was,  however,  appeased  by  the  coming  of  Zedekiah  in 
person  in  the  course  of  the  same  3-ear  591  (Jer.  li.  59). 
To  the  poor  suppliant  the  lesson  should  have  been  salu- 
tary. The  long  journe}*,  the  dread  of  sterner  punishment, 
the  humiliating  ceremony  of  prostration  and  penitence, 
the  oath  of  allegiance  before  Bel  and  Merodach,  these  were 
things  which  must  have  quenched  in  him  any  thought  of 
future  rebellion.  Indeed,  if  he  had  been  left  to  himself 
he  would  probably  not  have  cherished  the  first  seditious 
project,  and  certainly  would  not  have  countenanced  the 
second.  His  tragic  career  is  a  tale  of  weakness  rather  than 
of  deliberate  folly  or  wickedness. 

§  1172.  But  the  punishment  came  to  Zedekiah  and  to 
his  country  all  the  same.  Nor  could  his  truest  friend  or 
counsellor  say  that  it  was  undeserved  or  that  the  Chal- 
dseans  were  the  wrong-doers  in  the  work  of  punishment. 
It  was  the  fate  of  Jeremiah  to  defend  this  paradox  all 
through  his  prophetic  career,  though  as  he  was  no  specula- 
tive poet  like  Habakkuk,  who  made  the  paradox  immortal 
(§  1131  ff.),  he  left  the  solution  to  Jehovah,  and  made  the 
grief  his  own.  He  had,  however,  this  partial  compensa- 
tion, the  assurance  that  the  disturbed  balance  of  justice 
would  be  rectified  by  the  destruction  of  Babylon  herself. 
Perhaps   it    was  with   some   such  feeling  as  this   that  he 


244  JEREMIAH   TO   THE    EXILES  Book  X 

gave  a  special  commission  to  Zedekiah's  courier-attend- 
ant, Seraiali,  the  brother  of  Baruch  (cf.  Jer.  xxxii.  12). 1 
Seraiah  was  charged  to  read  to  the  exiles  all  the  words  of 
doom  that  had  been  spoken  concerning  Babylon.  Then, 
when  he  had  finished  the  reading,  he  was  to  bind  a  stone 
to  the  roll  and  cast  it  into  the  Euphrates,  saying,  "  Thus 
shall  Babylon  sink,  and  shall  not  rise  again/'  In  thinking 
of  the  discipline  of  the  captivity  we  must  not  leave  this 
Lesson  out  of  account.  Here  were  the  exiles  bidden  to 
make  Babylonia  their  home,  since  their  proper  home  was 
to  be  made  desolate.  But  the  time  was  coming  when 
Jerusalem  should  be  free  and  Babylon  be  the  captive. 
Yet  not  at  once,  not  till  one  generation  and  another 
should  have  passed  away.  The  exiles  were  to  live  in 
hope,  not  for  themselves  but  for  their  country  and  their 
religion.  That  is  to  say,  they  were  summoned  to  lives  of 
self-sacrifice.  Without  such  a  discipline  of  self-renuncia- 
tion, with  its  ministry  of  faith  and  hope,  the  great  restora- 
tion itself  would  have  come  in  vain  !  It  is  thus  from  the 
most  practical  of  the  prophets  that  we  learn  best  what  a 
vitalizing  and  restorative  force  prophecy  was  to  Israel. 
By  this,  rather  than  by  the  death  of  Hananiah,  he  showed 
that  he  was  the  messenger  of  Jehovah. 

§  1173.  This  message,  so  germinal  and  potential,  was 
Jeremiah's  last  direct  service  to  the  exiles  of  597.2  With 
this  his  work  for  them  was  finished.  Preaching  must  be 
specific,  prompt,  and  pertinent,  else  it  is  unavailing.  From 
distant  Jerusalem  he  could  not  continue  such  a  crusade 
as  that  which  he  had  begun  against  the  false  prophets. 
But  both  his  polemic  and  his  teaching  were  at  once  taken 
up  and  developed  by  a  prophet  of  their  own  who  had  long- 
been  in  training  for  the  work. 

1  The  choice  of  one  so  close  to  Jeremiah  for  this  responsible  position 
during  the  journey  is  evidence  that  the  prophet  stood  well  with  Zedekiah, 
at  least  at  this  juncture. 

-Jer.  xxx.-xxxiii..  which  deal  mainly  with  the  final  restoration,  in- 
clude, of  course,  the  exiles  of  the  first  deportation  ;  but  the  outlook  and 
treatment  are  throughout  general  and  comprehensive. 


CHAPTER   VIII 

EZEKIEL   IN   EXILE    AND   THE    HOME-LAND 

§  1174.  Jeremiah  relinquished  the  rule  of  prophet  to 
the  exiles  in  593  B.C.,  and  in  592  Ezekiel  assumed  it 
(Ez.  i.  2).  But  Ezekiel  though  in  exile  was  also  a 
prophet  of  Jerusalem.  He  thus  fulfilled  a  double  func- 
tion more  completely  than  did  his  master  Jeremiah.  The 
same  may  be  said  of  him  as  regards  his  profession  and  life- 
work.  He  was  priest  and  prophet  in  one  more  fully  than 
any  other  Israelite,  or  indeed  than  any  Christian  except, 
perhaps,  Savonarola,  though  no  mere  man  can  combine  the 
priestly  and  the  prophetic  character  in  completeness  and 
harmony.  Jeremiah  was  also  of  priestly  birth,  but  he 
seems  to  have  discarded  the  lessons  of  his  youth,  or  perhaps 
rather  to  have  outgrown  them.  To  Ezekiel,  who  in  exile 
m;is  debarred  from  the  sacerdotal  functions  which  from  the 
surroundings  had  perhaps  never  been  congenial  to  him 
in  Jerusalem,  clung  to  the  priestly  habit  of  thought  all 
through  life.  He  became  a  theologian,  while  Jeremiah 
remained  always  merely  a  religious  man,  and  therein  was 
the  greater  prophet,  replete  with  spontaneous  power  be- 
cause full  of  human  sympathy  and  passion.1  Ezekiel  was 
somewhat  cloistral,  always  meditative  and  idealistic,  yet 
withal  intensely  practical  and  statesmanlike  in  a  large 
constructive  fashion.  In  him  the  idea  of  the  theocracy 
was  matured.  The  kingdom  of  God  was  for  him  some- 
thing built  up  out  of  the  people  of  his  choice  according  to 

1  In  this  and   in  some  other  respects,  Jeremiah  was  to   Ezeki 

Luther  to  Calvin. 

245 


246  THOUGHT    AND    STYLE    OF    EZEKIEL  Book  X 

principle  and  method.  Yet  this  process  was  of  the  moral 
order  throughout,  aud  Ezekiel,  as  he  developed  his  system 
in  vision  and  reflection,  did  die  work  of  a  unique  priestly 
prophet  in  laying  a  foundation  of  righteousness  and  holi- 
ness for  a  new  kingdom  of  Jehovah. 

§  1175.  The  glory  of  Ezekiel  has  been  obscured  partly 
by  his  lack  of  mental  and  rhetorical  tact  and  grace,  but 
still  more  by  the  corruptions  of  his  text,  which  have  pre- 
vented his  readers  from  getting  readily  at  his  mean- 
ing. His  composition  is  laborious  and  massive,  built  up 
of  many  details.  His  style  as  well  as  his  intellect  itself 
has  rightly  been  called  architectonic,1  and  it  therefore 
suffers  all  the  more  by  apparent  imperfection,  as  a  care- 
fully planned  structure  is  marred  by  the  dislocation  of  a 
stone  or  the  fall  of  a  column.  But  the  few  that  have 
studied  him  profoundly  have  been  most  impressed  with 
the  depth  and  sublimity  of  his  thought.  His  long-drawn- 
out  visions  are  anything  but  visionary  :  in  them  his  imagi- 
nation bodies  forth  the  profoundest  convictions  known  to 
the  ancient  world  of  the  divine  holiness,  majesty,  and  spirit- 
uality. In  this  he  imitates  and  advances  beyond  Isaiah 
(S  1176,  note).  The  same  largeness  of  view  is  shown  in 
his  conception  of  the  providential  guidance  of  Israel  under 
the  grace  and  omnipotence  of  a  God  supreme  among  the 
nations  (ch.  xx.).  In  the  somewhat  less  congenial  but 
more  difficult  sphere  of  human  nature  and  its  divine  edu- 

1  Skinner,  art.  "  Ezekiel,"  in  DB.  This  and  Cornill's  sketch  in  Israel. 
Brophetismus  (189G)  are  among  the  best  estimates  of  the  prophet  that 
have  been  written.  Good  commentaries  on  Ezekiel  are  not  abundant, 
bat  they  are  more  numerous  than  those  mi  Jeremiah.  Davidson,  in  the 
Cambridge  Bible  for  Schools  (1896),  and  Skinner,  in  the  Expositor's 
Bible  series,  are  excellent  within  their  practical  limits.  More  critical, 
though  less  expository,  are  Smend  (1880.  second  edition  of  Hitzig.  1847 
and  Bertholet  (1897).  Orelli  (1888)  is  instructive,  though  too  con- 
servative. The  text  is  treated  in  the  work  of  Cornill.  Das  Buck  des 
Troph.  Esechiel  (1886)  and  that  of  Toy  in  SBOT.  (1899).  A  reference 
to  Driver.  Tntrod.,  or  to  Ewald's  work  in  his  Propheten,  is  almost  super- 
fluous. A  study  of  the  style  and  the  logical  and  literary  method  of 
Ezekiel  is  indispensable  for  even  a  general  understanding  of  his  writings. 


Ch.  VIII,  §1176       HIS  INTEREST   IX  JERUSALEM  247 

cation,  he  is  less  independent,  following  Jeremiah  in  his 
doctrine  of  the  new  heart  and  right  spirit  (xi.  19  ;  xviii. 
31 ;  xxxvi ;  26,  cf.  Jer.  xxiv.  7 ;  xxxii.  39)  and  setting 
forth  more  fully  and  inductively  the  great  principle  of 
individual  responsibility  (ch.  xviii. ;  cf.  Jer.  xxxi.  29  f.). 
His  influence  on  the  history  of  his  people  is  not  easily 
estimated  in  a  sentence  or  two,  but  will  appear  clearly  in 
the  course  of  our  narrative. 

§  1176.  We  think  first  of  his  interest  in  the  life  and 
fate  of  Jerusalem  during  the  four  years  that  intervene 
until  the  final  rebellion.  He  is  all  the  more  drawn  to 
prophesy  of  Jerusalem  because  his  fellow-exiles  are  unwill- 
ing to  hear  him  (iii.  7  ff.).1  The  fortunes  of  the  home-land, 
viewed  in  the  light  of  its  tragic  and  sinful  past,  furnished 
an  ample  field  to  his  uncurbed  imagination.  It  was  mainly 
for  this  part  of  his  work  that  he  was  prepared  by  those 
wonderful  visions  2  which  were  vouchsafed  to  him  by  the 

1  It  is  after  he  ceases  to  be  a  public  censor  (iii.  22-27)  that  he  sees  the 
woes  of  Jerusalem  (ch.  iv.  ff.).  But  the  references  to  the  opposition  of 
his  fellow-exiles  must  not  be  understood  too  literally,  and  the  allusion  to 
violence  in  iii.  25  is  of  course  to  be  taken  as  a  part  of  the  general  repre- 
sentation. In  the  first  four  years  of  exile  he  was  naturally  in  sympathy 
with  the  efforts  of  Jeremiah  to  discourage  the  hopes  of  a  speedy  return 
(cf.  §  1168),  and  doubtless  he  was  looked  upon  with  extreme  disfavour 
by  the  opposing  prophets  and  their  parly.  But  alter  the  submission  of 
king  Zedekiah  at  Babylon,  and  the  execution  of  the  ringleaders  Ahab 
and  Zedekiah  (>;  11G9),  there  would  not  be  so  much  open  antagonism. 
On  the  contrary,  we  read  of  the  elders  of  the  people  at  this  very  period 
coming  regularly  to  consult  him  ( viii.  1  ;  xiv.  1  ;  xx.  1),  and  at  a  later  time 
the  people  generally  are  represented  as  resorting  to  him  to  hear  his  dis- 
courses with  great  show  of  interest  (xxxiii.  30  ff.).  He  was  separated 
from  them  by  a  spiritual  and  moral  chasm  and  repulsion  rather  than  by 
personal  enmity. 

2  These  visions  stand  above  rather  than  upon  the  arena  of  historical 
action,  and  do  not  enter  into  the  main  current  of  the  life  and  thought 
that  give  character  to  Israel  and  form  the  normal  basis  of  Revelation. 
It  is  highly  probable  that  the  original  suggestion  (Isa.  vi.)  furnished  by 
the  cherubim  of  the  temple,  was  enlarged  by  familiarity  with  the  im- 
posing yet  grotesque  composite  figures,  symbolizing  various  superhuman 
attributes,  which  guarded  the  dwellings,  palaces,  and  temples  of  the  Baby- 
lonians.    The  subject  of  the  cherubim  is  still  somewhat  obscure,  though 


248  MODES   OF    REVELATION  Book  X 


Kebar  (i.  4  —  28;  viii.  1  —  -4;  x.).  In  these  the  holiness 
and  majesty,  the  irresistible  power  as  well  as  the  omnia, 
cience  of  Jehovah,  are  expressed  in  images  drawn  from 
the  symbolical  figures  of  Hebrew  and  Chaldsean  worship. 
These  revelations  brought  to  his  mind  what  Jehovah  was 
to  his  distracted  people.  The  thought  of  these  attributes 
of  the  God  of  Israel  bore  him  up  in  view  of  the  destruction 
of  the  holy  city  and  the  temple.  For  Jehovah  is  greater 
than  his  favourite  dwelling-place  ;  He  may  leave  it  and 
it  falls  defenceless;  but  He  may  appear  in  his  glory  on 
the  alien  soil  of  Babylonia.1  The  same  thought  sustained 
him  in  the  presence  of  the  overwhelming  material  greatness 
of  Babylonia,  as  contrasted  with  the  meanness  and  feeble- 
ness of  the  remnants  of  Judah.  For  they  with  Him  on 
their  side  were  yet  to  be  stronger  than  all  their  oppressors. 

§  1177.  Of  actual  occurrences  in  the  history  of  Jerusalem 
before  its  final  siege  by  Nebuchadrezzar,  we  learn  nothing 
from  Ezekiel  His  prophecy  is  made  up  of  a  series  of  judg- 
ments, and  these  are  of  an  abstract  character,  evoked  by 
general  conditions  rather  than  by  special  incidents.  His 
predictions  also  do  not  relate  to  any  intervening  events  of 
national  importance,  but  to  the  all-absorbing  catastrophe 
alone. 

§  1178.  Very  characteristic  of  Ezekiel  are  the  means 
by  which  he  represents  the  details  of  Jerusalem's  distress 
and  of  the  final  calamity.  The  main  process  of  destruction 
is  the  siege.     This  he  beholds  four  years  in  advance  by  the 

many  have  written  upon  it.  For  good  short  discussions  one  may  consult 
Smend,  Alttest.  Beligionsgeschichte,  p.  21  f.,  467 f.,  Nowack,  HA.  ii.  38  f., 
and  the  article  "  Cherubim.'1  in  DR.,  by  Professor  J.  E.  Ryle.  The  bibli- 
cal usage  is  well  summarized  in  article  3113  in  Brown's  Gesenius. 

1  It  has  been  pointed  out  (as  by  Cornill.  Der  israelitische  Prqphetis- 
,,'i's.  117  f.)  how  closely  Ezekiel  resembles  Isaiah  in  his  view  of  the  ex- 
altation of  Jehovah  above  his  creatures.  But  notice  the  advance  made 
by  Ezekiel.  The  "seraphim"  of  Isaiah  represent  Jehovah  only  in  his 
temple.  But  EzekiePs  cherubim  appear  even  in  an  unclean  and  hostile 
land.  Fresh  revelations  were  associated  with  revolutionary  events  in  the 
history  of  Israel,  which  implied  an  aspect  of  Jehovah's  nature  and  provi- 
dence hitherto  unknown  or  unfelt  (§  1335  ff.). 


Ch.  VIII,  §  1178  PICTORIAL    IMAGES  249 

inward  eve.  The  vision  is  so  clear  that  he  can  objectivize 
it  in  a  picture.  What  he  sees  is  engraved  upon  a  tile,  such 
as  were  found  by  the  thousand  in  Babylonia  bearing 
inscriptions  or  pictorial  representations.1  Thereon  the 
main  events  and  actions  of  the  aggressive  work  of  a  for- 
mal siege  are  depicted  in  the  order  of  their  occurrence2 
(Ez.  iv.  1-3;  cf  xxvi.  8  f. ). 

1  The  setting  and  the  details  of  this  representation  are  Babylonian.  The 
very  idea  of  a  picture  is  foreign  to  Israelitish  usage,  which  forbade  the 
making  of  any  image  or  likeness  as  promoting  idolatry.  Certain  results 
of  the  singular  absence  of  this  form  of  art  culture  may  be  remarked. 
Inasmuch  as  even  mechanical  drawing  was  discouraged  thereby,  con- 
structive skill  in  all  directions,  notably  in  architecture,  was  lacking  all 
through  the  history  of  Israel.  Again,  the  faculty  of  nice  observation, 
which  is  so  greatly  promoted  by  the  artistic  habit,  was  very  slightly 
developed.  For  example,  there  is  no  description  of  or  even  allusion  to 
scenes  or  occurrences  in  the  realm  of  nature  in  the  Bible,  except  the  most 
familiar  and  imposing  objects  and  phenomena.  Thirdly,  the  form  and 
style  of  the  literature  are  a  constant  testimony  to  the  absence  of  this  half- 
aesthetic,  half-scientific  education.  On  the  other  hand,  Ezekiel,  who  lived 
so  long  in  Babylonia,  is  the  most  methodical  of  writers  (§  1175)  in  the 
conception,  plan,  and  style  of  his  compositions.  He,  moreover,  shows 
knowledge  of  designing  and  architecture  (ch.  xl.  ff.  ;  cf.  Davidson,  Book 
of  Ezekiel,  p.  xxvii).  The  detailed  working  out  of  the  siege  is  also  Baby- 
lonish. 

2  No  objection  can  well  be  taken  to  the  above  explanation  of  the  com- 
mand given  to  the  prophet  to  "  take  a  tile  and  engrave  upon  it  a  city." 
The  other  alternative  is  to  understand  the  terms  literally.  In  the  present 
instance  the  carrying  out  of  the  command  by  actual  mechanical  process, 
while  somewhat  eccentric,  would  be  neither  impossible  nor  unexampled. 
In  other  cases  {e.g.  iv.  4-6)  the  absurdity  of  the  literal  interpretation 
becomes  manifest.  Here  again  we  have  a  suggestion  of  the  caution  that 
is  necessary  when  canons  of  Hebrew  literary  form  and  style  are  discussed. 
We  should  remember  that  just  here  the  prophet  forebore  to  teach  the 
people  in  any  way  (iii.  2G).  so  thai  the  only  conceivable  motive  of  a  spec- 
tacular performance  could  nol  have  been  present.  The  public  silence 
imposed  upon  him  must  have  lasted  until  the  end  of  this  scries  of  visions 
and  symbolical  actions,  that  is,  to  the  close  of  the  siege  of  Jerusalem. 
Otherwise  iii.  26  is  meaningless.  After  this  point  was  reached,  he  had 
free  communication  with  the  people,  and  then  doubtless  the  command  to 

explain  the  Signs  was  fulfilled  (cf.  XXiv.  27).  In  the  meantime,  ••shut 
up  in  his  house'*  (iii.  24),  he  was  visited  by  those  who  chose  to  come 
to  him  (cf.  §  1 170  note),  and  by  them  the  visions  and  symbols  were 
observed  (viii.  1,  etc.). 


250  SYMBOLICAL  ACTIONS  Book  X 

§  1179.  Another  symbolical  action,  to  be  interpreted  on 
similar  principles,  represents  the  sufferings  and  the  fate 
of  Israel  and  Judah.  The  prophet  must  lie  on  his  left 
side  one  hundred  and  ninety 1  days  to  represent  the  number 
of  years  of  the  captivity  of  northern  Israel,  and  for  the 
years  of  the  captivity  of  the  kingdom  of  Judah  to  lie  on 
his  right  side  fur  forty  days.  In  this  way  lie  was  "to  bear 
the  iniquity  of  the  house  of  Israel  "  (iv.  5)  and  of  "  the  house 
of  Judah  "  (iv.  6).  "  Lying  on  his  side,  held  down  as  with 
cords  (iv.  8)  and  unable  to  turn,  he  represents  Israel 
pressed  and  held  in  the  grasp  of  the  punishment  of  its 
iniquity."  2  Simultaneously  with  this  performance,  that  is, 
during  the  one  hundred  and  ninety  days,  he  is  to  live  on 
a  frugal  and  at  the  same  time  ceremonially  unclean  diet 
prepared  by  him  in  a  peculiarly  repulsive  manner  to  set 
forth  the  scarcity  of  food  during  the  siege,  the  sufferings 
of  the  beleaguered  people,  and  the  desperate  means  to 
which  they  would  resort  in  the  fight  against  famine.3 
The  symbol  also  meant,  in  the  spirit  of  Hos.  ix.  3  f., 
that  captivity  would  in  a  sense  prolong  such  horrors, 
since  all  food  partaken  of  in  a  foreign  land  was  unclean, 
because  it  could  not  be  offered  to  the  absent  Jehovah 
(iv.  9-17). 

§  1180.  Still  another  symbolical  action  was  enjoined. 
The  prophet  must  disfigure  himself  by  cutting  off  the  hair 
of  his  head  and  his  beard,  and  that  with  a  sword.  The 
hair  must  then  be  divided  into  three  equal  parts,  one  of 


1  The  Hebrew  text  gives  three  hundred  and  ninety  days,  but  the  Sept., 
as  given  above,  is  undoubtedly  correct.  In  this  number  the  last  forty 
years  were  common  to  the  captivities  of  Israel  and  Judah.  The  reckon- 
ing is  to  be  made  from  722  b.c.  (§  360).  We  need  not  seek  for  exactness 
here.  While  Ezekiel  uives  forty  years  for  the  exile  of  Judah.  Jeremiah 
had  already  announced  seventy,  and  this  was  probably  known  to  Ezekiel. 
Neither  number  is.  nor  was  intended  to  be,  accurate.  The  "  left  side  "  in 
Hebrew  is  a  synonym  for  the  north,  and  the  "  right  side  "  for  the  south. 

-  Davidson,  The  Book  of  Ezekiel,  p.  30. 

3  Compare  the  horrible  sarcasm  and  hyperbole  of  the  Assyrian  legate 
addressed  to  the  defenders  of  Jerusalem  in  701  b.c.  (2  K.  xviii.  27). 


Cii.  VIII,  §  1182         EFFECT   OF   THE   VISIONS  251 

which  was  to  be  burned,  another  to  be  struck  with  the 
sword,  and  the  third  to  be  scattered  to  the  winds  (Ez.  v. 
1— t).  This  procedure  sets  forth  the  fate  of  the  people  of 
Jerusalem  (vs.  12  ff.),  some  of  whom  should  be  consumed 
by  pestilence  and  famine  during  the  siege,  others  fall  a 
prey  to  the  sword  of  the  conqueror,  and  others  flee  far 
and  wide  to  peril  and  death.  Upon  this  there  follows  a 
discourse  couched  in  the  familiar  prophetic  language  of 
threatening  and  denunciation  but  marked  by  more  than 
usual  severity  and  bitterness  (chs.  vi.  and  vii.). 

§  1181.  The  foregoing  citations  afford  sufficient  idea  of 
the  occupation  of  the  prophet  of  the  early  exile  during 
the  first  year  of  his  official  ministry.  His  work  may  seem 
to  have  had  no  great  historical  importance,  inasmuch  as 
he  now  held  aloof  from  public  life  and  did  not  seek 
directly  to  promote  definite  action  either  in  Babylonia 
or  in  Jerusalem.  Yet  his  peculiar  methods  of  prophesying 
were  not  wholly  without  practical  effect.  The  leaders  of 
the  people  who  had  been  hitherto  hostile  or  indifferent 
now  showed  an  interest  which  was  more  than  curiosity. 
In  the  words  of  the  promise  made  to  Jeremiah  (§  1126), 
they  resorted  to  him  while  he  did  not  resort  to  them. 
Shut  up  in  his  house,  he  was  visited  by  "  the  elders  of 
Judah "  in  the  sixth  year  of  his  captivity,  just  a  year 
after  the  first  of  his  previous  visions.  In  this  situation 
he  fell  into  a  trance,  in  the  course  of  which  he  felt  him- 
self borne  away  to  Jerusalem.  Here  he  beheld  various 
actions  performed  by  leading  citizens  (Ez.  viii.-xi.),  winch 
are  the  most  instructive  revelations  made  to  us  of  the 
moral  and  spiritual  condition  of  the  people  since  the 
attempted  reformation  of  Josiah. 

§  1182.  This  is  what  the  prophet  saw  after  his  vision- 
ary journey  through  the  upper  air  to  the  sacred  haunts 
of  his  earlier  days  (viii.  3).  First  of  all  the  glory  of  God 
was  displayed  as  it  had  been  in  the  plain  of  the  Kebar 
(viii.  4).  Then  in  startling  contrast  was  seen  an  Ashera, 
such  as  that  which   King  Manasseh  had  put  in  the  temple 


252  ABOMINATIONS   IN   THE   TEMPLE  Book  X 


(^2  K.  xxi.  7)  and  Josiah  had  removed  and  burnt  (§  854), 
it  having  apparently  been  restored  under  Zedekiah.  It 
is  significantly  called  the  "  jealousy-image,"  as  challenging 
most  of  all  the  indignation  of  the  jealous  God  of  Israel. 
This  incitement  to  sensual  iniquity,  in  the  very  precincts 
of  Jehovah's  dwelling-place,  stood  well  within  the  outer 
court  of  the  temple. 

§  1183.  Passing  this  image  he  enters  the  gateway  that 
leads  from  the  outer  to  the  inner  court  and  the  various 
adjoining  side  chambers  and  offices  of  the  temple  function- 
aries. In  some  of  these  cells,  to  which  access  was  only 
gained  secretly  (cf.  the  symbolical  action  of  vs.  7  and  8), 
many  of  the  elders  of  the  people  were  burning  incense  to 
various  bestial  objects1  (viii.  6-12)  in  the  desperate  hope 
of  moving  all  the  supernatural  powers  in  behalf  of  the  de- 
clining monarchy.  Those  deities  which  were  specially 
propitiated  were  native  to  the  soil  of  Canaan,  since  the 
votaries  were  now  dreading  the  forfeiture  of  home  and 
country.  Significant  in  this  connection  is  the  watchword 
of  the  obscure  and  clandestine  mysteries:  "Jehovah  hath 
forsaken  the  land."  It  was  as  though  the  land,  devastated 
and  depopulated,  and  held  in  fee  by  a  foreign  tyrant,  had 
been  abandoned  by  its  God,  and  given  over  to  the  demons 

i  Cf.  W.  R.  Smith,  Prophets,  p.  --'02  ;  RS.2,  pp.  290  ff.,  357.  The  cult 
of  these  unclean  animals  was  a  survival  and  revival  of  primitive  totemistic 
habits,  and  not  an  imitation  of  Egyptian  beast-worship,  which  had  to  do 
only  with  living  animals,  and  was,  indeed,  never  naturalized  in  Israel  or 
among  any  Semitic  people.  The  representation  of  these  objects  of  super- 
stitious regard,  as  "carved  on  the  wall  round  about"'  (viii.  10),  —  not 
"pourtrayed"  (EV.)  or  "painted"  (Smend),  —  is  probably  another 
touch  of  Babylonian  influence  (cf.  xxiii.  14).  These  bas-reliefs  were 
entirely  foreign  to  Hebrew  usage  (§  1178),  and,  however  serious  the 
innovations  of  the  time  may  have  been,  the  temple  chambers  would 
scarcely  be  decorated  with  such  elaborate  foreign  devices  to  set  forth 
the  objects  of  a  rude  and  simple  cult.  Ezekiel  has  in  large  measure 
transferred  the  associations  of  Babylonian  temples  and  palaces  to  the 
temple  of  Jerusalem.  The  sacrifices  made  by  lebrews  at  a  somewhat 
later  period  (  Isa.  lxvi.  3,  17),  of  various  unclean  creatures,  were  also  in 
some  way  connected  with  demoniacal  beliefs.  Their  motive,  however,  is 
as  yet  obscure. 


Ch.  VIII,  §  1184  WEEPING   FOR   TAMMUZ  253 

that  held  their  sway  before  even  Baal  and  Ashtoreth  had 
come  in  with  the  corn  and  the  vine  and  the  feasts  of  the 
blossoming  year ! 

§  1184.  The  prophet  next  sees  in  vision  the  part 
played  by  the  women  in  the  deterioration  of  faith  and 
morals.  He  turns  northward  again  to  the  most  fre- 
quented entrance  of  the  temple  (cf.  §  1118),  "and  behold! 
there  were  sitting  the  women  weeping  for  Tammnz " 2 
(Ez.  viii.  13  f.).  As  in  the  previous  exhibition,  so  we  have 
here  a  specimen  of  a  religious  custom  whose  observance 
shows  a  radical  departure  from  the  pure  worship  of 
Jehovah.  No  symbol  was  more  beautiful  and  more  seduc- 
tive than  the  great  nature-myth  which  in  one  form  or 
another  enthralled  the  North-Semitic  world  from  the 
Tigris  to  the  Mediterranean.  It  was  the  everlasting 
mystery  and  process  of  the  decay  of  nature,  the  ebbing 
away  of  the  illumining,  vitalizing,  gladdening  effluence  of 
the  spring  and  summer  sun.  The  usage  which  is 
here  commemorated,  though  it  has  its  parallel  in  the  Phoe- 
nician custom  of  the  mourning  for  Adonis,  and  its  founda- 
tion in  immemorial  Canaanitic  tradition,  is  in  the  view  of 

1  The  myth  of  Tammuz  has  two  main  branches.  In  both  he  figures  as 
a  solar  deity.  In  the  primary  and  fundamental  form,  he  is  the  princi- 
ple of  fertility,  particularly  in  the  vegetable  world.  Hence  midsummer 
is  tin-  proper  season  of  Tammuz.  Indeed,  "Tammuz"  is  the  name  of 
the  fourth  month  of  the  Babylonian  or  Semitic  year.  Then  the  sun  is 
in  his  strength,  the  powers  of  nature  are  most  active,  and  it  is  then  that 
in  many  parts  of  the  world,  if  no1  indeed  everywhere,  the  chief  rites  of 
Slin-WOrship  were  celebrated.  Even  yet,  among  the  Indians  of  the  North- 
west, the  sun-dance  perpetuates  the  universal  cult.  Tin  re,  too,  a  (while) 
d.>Lr  is  sacrificed  (cf.  RS.,2  p.  202  note).  Tammuz  is  the  analogue  of 
Adonis,  whose  worship,  naturalized  in  Greece,  was  originally  Phoenician, 
and  therefore  Canaanitic.  But  the  cult  of  Adonis  corresponds  rather  to 
the  second  or  special  aspect  of  Tammuz  worship,  which  is  exemplified  in 
this  passage  of  Ezekiel  and  described  further  below.  The  name  Tammuz 
is  found  only  twice  in  the  Bible,  and  nowhere  else  except  as  derived  from 
the  Babylonian.  It  is  explained  in  cuneiform  texts  as  equivalent  to 
"child  of  life,"  on  the  assumption  that  the  original  form  is  dumuz. 
Dumuz,  however,  may  be  an  artificial  construction  of  priestly  anti- 
quarianism. 


254  THE    .MISSION  OF   ISHTAE  Book  X 

our   prophet  specifically  Babylonian,  else    he   would  not 
have  used  the  exclusively  Babylonian  name.1 

§  1185.  Fortunately  the  treasures  of  the  cuneiform 
literature  afford  an  explanation  worth  giving  of  this  much- 
debated  passage.  Notice  in  the  first  place  that  the  vision 
is  seen  in  the  sixth  month  of  the  year  (viii.  1).  Turning 
to  the  native  cuneiform  table  of  months,  we  find  that  the 
sixth  month  Ulul  ( the  "  Elul  "  of  Neh.  vi.  15  )  is  described 
as  ••  the  month  of  the  mission  of  Ishtar."  2  What  is  the 
meaning  of  this  portentous  phrase?  The  main  part  of  the 
answer  is  furnished  by  the  famous  kt  Descent  of  Ishtar,"  3  as 
it  is  usually  called,  a  poem  describing  the  journey  of  Ish- 
tar to  the  underworld,  the  realm  of  Allatu,  in  search  of  her 
consort  Tammuz.  The  poem  in  its  present  form  embodies 
more  than  one  variety  of  Ishtar-myth.  An  astronomical 
motive,  based  on  the  rising  and  setting  of  the  planet  Venus, 
is  there  combined  with  an  eschatological  motive  having 
the  practical  purpose  of  setting  forth  to  anxious  inquirers 


1  The  reader  should  bear  in  mind  that  Tammuz  is  not  the  same  pre- 
cisely as  Adonis.  The  analogy  of  the  respective  rites  does  not  constitute 
identity  of  the  objects  worshipped  or  celebrated.  A  community  of  origin 
between  the  Canaanitic  mourning  for  Adonis  and  the  Babylonian  weeping 
for  Tammuz  is  not  yet  proved,  though  it  may  be  considered  probable. 
We  have  to  think  similarly  of  the  analogy  of  Venus  and  Ishtar. 

2  See  V  K.  29  nr.  1,  line  6j  cf.  Haupt.  Keilschrifttexte,  p.  04,  and 
Delitzsch,  Assyrische  Lesestiicke,  p.  '•'-!  f.  In  a  list  of  months,  with  their 
presiding  divinities  ( IV  E.  33),  Ulul  is  named  as  sacred  to  Ishtar.  In  the 
epic  of  Gilgamesh  (formerly  held  to  be  "Nimrod"),  the  sixth  tablet  or 
book  among  the  twelve  (following  the  signs  of  the  zodiac)  describes  the 
love  of  Ishtar  for  the  hero  and  its  results.  The  name  -'Virgo"  for  the 
sixth  zodiacal  constellation  commemorates  these  associations. 

s  Published  in  TSBA.  II,  179  ff.,  and  IV  R.  31  ;  extracts  in  Assyr. 
Lesestiicke,  and  Lyon,  Assyrian  Manual.  The  first  translations  with 
comments  were  made  by  Talbot,  in  TSBA..  as  above,  and  in  EP.  I.  141 
ff.  ;  by  G.  Smith,  Chaldcean  Genesis;  by  Schrader,  Die  Hdllenfahrt  der 
Istar,  these  three  having  done  most  to  break  and  clear  the  way.  Recent 
3  are  those  of  Sayce,  Hibbert  Lectures,  1887;  of  A.  Jeremias.  Die 
babylonisch-assyrischen  Vorstellungen  vom  Leben  nach  dem  Tode  (1887); 
and  Jastrow,  RBA.  (1898).  Talbot,  Schrader,  and  Jeremias  have  also 
given  transcriptions  of  the  text. 


Ch.  VIII,  §  1187  TAMMUZ    AND   ISHTAB  255 

or  mourners  the  condition  of  the  departed  in  the  under- 
world.1 The  fundamental  idea  is,  however,  evident  in  the 
main  features  of  the  story,  and  to  this  we  shall  have  to 
confine  ourselves  here. 

§  1186.  Tammuz,  the  impersonation  of  the  fructifying, 
gladdening  sun,  is  at  the  height  of  his  glory  in  the  heavens, 
shining  "  with  all-triumphant  splendour," 2  in  the  month 
of  July,  and  at  the  same  time  he  has  fully  ripened  the 
precious  fruits  of  the  earth.  In  September,  when  "  the  sun 
crosses  the  line,"  when  the  lengthening  night  begins  to 
overcome  the  day,  his  supremacy  is  at  an  end  ;  he  has  suc- 
cumbed to  the  powers  of  darkness.  This  process  of  decline 
and  deca}r,  the  harbinger  of  winter,  was  figured  by  the 
naive  fancy  of  primitive  men  as  the  banishment  of  Tam- 
muz to  the  realm  of  the  dead.  But  there  is  another 
factor  in  the  fully  developed  myth.  It  was  inevitable,  in 
the  very  nature  of  things,  that  as  the  counterpart  of  Tam- 
muz, regarded  as  the  male  principle  of  productiveness,  a 
goddess  should  be  thought  of  as  expressing  the  female 
principle.  And  so  it  came  to  be  popularly  felt  that  the 
love  and  union  of  Tammuz  and  Ishtar  were  the  source  of 
all  the  beaut}7  and  fertility  of  the  earth,  of  the  perpetuation 
of  the  race  of  plants,  animals,  and  men,  of  life  itself,  with 
its  manifold  activities  and  enjoyments.  Hence,  when 
Tammuz  was  exiled  to  the  under-world,  it  was  fancied 
that  Ishtar  descended  thither  to  seek  him  and  bring  him 
back  before  his  doom  of  banishment  should  become  irrevo- 
cable. Thus  with  each  returning  year  came  the  month 
of  "  Tammuz  "  and  the  month  of  the  "mission  of  Ishtar." 

§  1187.  But  many  of  these  old  nature-myths  were  not 
merely  symbols  of  the  wonder-inspiring  phenomena  of  the 

1  See  Jastrow,  KBA.  p.  f>05,  571;  Jensen,  Kosmologie,  p.  227  ff. 

2  So  Shakespeare,  Sonnet  xxxiii.  In  these  exquisite  lines  the  supreme 
poet  suggests  to  us  how  in  sucli  natural  phenomena  the  whole  ancient 
world  could  see  an  allegory  of  the  gladness  and  sorrow,  the  hopes  and 
disappointments,  of  humanity.  A  reading  of  the  sonnet  is  a  good  prepa- 
ration for  the  study  of  the  nature-myth. 


256  A   GREAT   NATURE-MYTH  Book  X 

outer  world  —  they  became  also  parables  of  some  of  the 
most  profound  and  mysterious  processes  and  passions  of 
human  life.  The  imposing  fact  of  life  itself,  with  its  vary- 
ing sum  of  joys  and  sorrows,  and  the  inevitable  coming  of 
death,  with  its  silence,  inaction,  and  gloom,  exercised  a 
potent  influence  on  the  imagination  as  well  as  on  the  sensi- 
bilities of  early  humanity.  Behind  it  all  lay  the  mystery 
of  production  and  reproduction  linked  with  that  sexual 
passion  which  runs  in  all  sensuous  being.  Moreover, 
primitive  peoples  were  much  more  closely  united  by 
unconscious  sympathy  to  lower  forms  of  life  and  to  the 
very  earth  itself,  than  the  reflective  and  tutored  men  and 
women  of  our  modern  civilization.  They  did  not  philoso- 
phize or  theorize.  In  types  and  symbols,  made  moving 
and  memorable  by  poetic  fancy,  they  "bodied  forth  the 
forms  of  things  unknown."  Yet  such  poems  and  stories, 
in  which  we  philosophizing  moderns  have  found  the  key 
that  unlocks  the  antique  mind  and  heart,  were  but  the 
outward  sign  and  expression  of  what  was  at  once  the  inspi- 
ration and  the  habit  of  the  deepest  spiritual  life  which 
these  poor  children  of  the  earth  could  know.  They 
belonged  to  the  potent  realm  of  religion  guarded  by  grati- 
tude and  fear.  In  the  fond  but  real  fictions  of  Tammuz, 
Ishtar,  and  their  supernal  and  infernal  colleagues,  they 
generalized  the  countless  influences  and  motives  that  were 
felt  or  suspected  in  the  springing  of  the  grass,  the  bloom- 
ing of  the  flowers,  the  ripening  of  summer  fruits,  the  pair- 
ing of  birds  and  beasts  and  men,  and  the  coming  into  the 
world  of  a  new  generation. 

§  1188.  Thus  appeared  the  two  chief  forms  of  the 
myth  of  Tammuz,  the  one  being  to  the  other  as  the  winter 
is  to  the  summer  or  as  the  autumn  is  to  the  spring.  By 
them  the  miracle  of  the  changing  seasons  was  brought 
within  the  magic  circle  of  the  joys  and  sorrows  and  hopes 
and  fears  of  human  life,  and  transformed  into  a  perpetual 
parable.  It  is  with  the  second  form  of  the  myth  that  we 
are  here  particularly  concerned.      The  "  weeping  for  Tarn- 


Ch.  VIII,  §  1189      THE   EVIL   OF  THE   SYMBOL  257 

muz  "  was,  in  the  widest  sense,  the  universal  expression 
of  sadness  not  merely  for  the  departure  of  the  beauty  and 
richness  of  summer,  but  for  all  which  this  loss  Symbolized, 
the  manifold  evils  which  the  course  of  nature  brings  to 
mankind.  Among  those  peoples  with  whom  thought  and 
language,  feeling  and  expression,  were  so  closely  allied 
as  to  be  identical  in  common  speech,  among  whom  wailing 
and  beating  the  breast  were  synonymous  with  mourning, 
the  weeping  for  the  dying  lord  of  the  day  was  simply  the 
vicarious  utterance  of  a  widespread  regret,  a  little  noisy 
drama  of  cries  and  tears  to  image  forth  a  world-wide 
tragedy,  silent  and  perpetual  as  the  process  of  the  suns. 
What  was  most  important  of  all,  it  became  a  religious  rite 
and  ceremon}*,  simple,  natural,  and  fascinating. 

§  1189.  But  here  we  are  pointed  to  "the  women  weep- 
ing for  Tammuz,"  and  that  within  the  precincts  of  the 
temple.  An  explanation  of  this  obnoxious  rite  is  furnished 
by  the  mission  of  Ishtar,  or  rather  by  the  whole  series  of 
relations  between  the  god  and  the  goddess,  of  which  Ish- 
tar seeking  her  lost  consort  is  the  most  significant  episode. 
The  suggestive  feature  of  these  associations  is  the  desire 
for  Tammuz.  Here  we  strike  upon  the  essential  evil,  the 
danger-point  in  the  old  nature  religions.  When  the 
forces  or  phenomena  of  the  outer  world  are  viewed  merely 
as  natural  emblems  of  the  events  and  vicissitudes  of 
human  life,  their  contemplation  has  nothing  injurious 
in  it;  it  is  as  innocent  as  are  the  reflections  upon  it  of  a 
modern  philosopher.1  But  when  the  emblem  is  made  a 
symbol,  and  the  resemblance  becomes  a  representation, 
and  the  powers  of  nature  are  personified  into  the  likeness 
of  the  gods,  a  new  and  mighty  motive,  the  sanction  of 
religion,  is  added  to  the  human  impulses  which  the  super- 
nal  beings   symbolize.       Whatever    passion   or  desire   of 

1  It  is  almost  needless  to  observe  here  that  such  a  stage  of  the  contem- 
plation of  nature  never  really  existed  among  primitive  men,  with  whom 
feeling  took   the   place   of   reflection,  and   nature  worship  the  place  of 
objective  observation, 
s 


i 


258  RELIGION    AND   SENSUALITY  Book  X 

men  is  either  directly  set  forth  or  necessarily  involved  in 
this  species  of  religions  symbolism  is  thereby  consecrated 
and  legitimated,  idealized,  and  intensified.  In  the  pres- 
ent' instance  it  is  human  love  or  Inst  that  receives  its 
apotheosis  in  the  worship  of  Ishtar  and  Tammnz,  and 
the  inseparable  common  history  of  ancient  religion  and 
ancient  morality  testifies  to  the  influence  of  such  a 
deification.1 

§  1190.  Herein  lay  the  danger  and  the  significance  of 
"the  women  weeping  for  Tammuz  "  in  the  view  of  the 
prophets  of  Jehovah.  This  rite,  as  actually  performed  in 
Jerusalem  in  the  sixth  month  of  591  B.C.,  may  not  have 
been  directly  associated  with  acts  of  sexnal  vice  perpe- 
trated under  the  license  of  religion.  But  at  any  rate,  the 
moral  evil  was  inevitably  promoted  by  the  religious  cere- 
mony. Indeed,  at  this  stage  in  the  history  of  Israel  the 
introduction  of  the  custom  was  tantamount  to  an  author- 
ization of  those  shameful  practices  which  marked  antique 
Semitic  religion  wherever  a  temple  was  reared  and  dedi- 
cated.  Against  them,  as  a  concomitant  of  Baal-worship 
and  a  chief  incentive  to  its  cultivation,  the  true  priests 
and  prophets  of  Jehovah  had  inveighed  and  contended  for 
centuries.  The  legislation  of  Deuteronomy  (xxiii.  18) 
sought  to  suppress  it  entirely.  Instances  of  its  preva- 
lence are  recorded  both  of  the  northern  (Am.  ii.  7;  Hos. 
iv.  13  ff.)  and  of  the  southern  kingdom  (1  K.  xv.  12; 
xxii.  46;  cf.  xiv.  24).  The  very  names  (tth|3  and  ntfhj?) 
of  the  votaries  of  this  most  pernicious  of  all  social  cus- 
toms indicate  this  function  as  ministers  of  religion  ;2  they 
were  a  common  designation  for  profligate  men  and  women 
(Gen.  xxxviii.  21  al.~).  Repulsive  as  are  some  of  the 
features  of  Tammitz  worship,  and  ministering  as  it  did  to 
debasing  and  deteriorating  passions,  its  history,  taken  as 

1  For  the  unethical  character  of  the  observance  generally,  see  the  re- 
marks of  W.  It.  Smith,  RS.2,  p.  413  ff. 

2  Cf.  Assyrian  l.;<nlisti<  ;  and  see  Zimmern,  Bahylonische  Busspsalmen, 
p.  40;  Jastrow,  BBA.  p.  475  f.  ;  Jeremias,  Izdubar,  p.  59  f. 


(ii.  VIII„§  1191         ADORATION   OF   THE   SUN  259 

a  whole,  is  the  most  instructive  of  all  subjects  that  engage 
the  attention  of  the  student  of  comparative  religion.  There 
is  nothing  which  so  plainly  demonstrates  the  need  of  man- 
kind for  a  divine  purifying  energy  to  withstand  the  most 
insidious  and  virulent  of  spiritual  tempters.  This  was  the 
monster  that  the  religion  of  Jehovah  slew  in  seemingly 
unequal  fight.  It  was  the  veritable  serpent  of  Eden,1 
and  no  miracle  of  the  Old  or  New  Testament  was  so  great 
as  the  crushing  of  its  head. 

§  1191.  After  this  disclosure  of  the  worship  of  a  solar 
deity  or  special  manifestation  of  the  power  of  the  god  of 
day.  the  direct  adoration  of  the  sun  himself  by  the  elders 
of  the  priests  (cf.  ix.  6)  is  witnessed  in  vision  by  the 
prophet.  In  the  Holy  Place,  in  front  of  the  altar,  a  score 
of  men  were  seen,  with  fates  averted  from  the  glory  of 
Jehovah  in  the  Shechinah,  doing  homage  to  the  sun-god 
(viii.  15  f. ).2  Like  the  other  forms  of  idolatry,  this  was 
promoted  by  Babylonian  influence.  Already,  at  or  near 
the  same  place  in  the  temple,  a  representation  of  the  horses 
and  chariots  of  the  sun  in  his  journey  through  the  heavens 
had  been  imported  in  deference  to  Assyria,  presumably 
by  Ahaz  or  Manasseh.     It  had  been  destroyed  by  Josiah 


1  Cf.  Jastrow,  RBA.  p.  477. 

-  It  is  singular  that  most  expositors  (Davidson  being  an  exception) 
hare  seen  in  viii.  17  a  new  and  extreme  form  of  false  worship,  mistrans- 
lated in  the  words  of  EV.,  ••and  1<»!  theyput  the  branch  to  their  nose." 
But  the  expression,  which  is  quite  obscure,  must,  whatever  its  exact- 
meaning,  be  an  amplification  of  the  statement  just  preceding,  "  they  have 
filled  the  land  with  wrong-doing. "  The  other  forms  of  idolatry  are  elabo- 
rately introduced  with  an  indication  of  the  places  ami  modes  of  observ- 
ance '  vs.  2-16 )  ;  ;ui<l  this  would  be  SO  distinguished  also  if  it  were  some- 
thing so  strange  and  specific.  Some  perceive  a  ret'rn  nee  to  "  the  Persian 
habit  of  holding  before  the  mouth  a  bundleof  twigs  while  invoking  the 
god  of  light'1  (Orelli,  Das  Buch  Ezechiel  ausgelegt,  L888,  p.  38).  But 
how  should  the  Hebrews,  or,  for  that  matter,  the  Babylonians,  at  this 

Stage  of  their  history,  have  been  led  to  caricature,  or  adopt  in  any  fashion, 

a  religious  custom  of  a  people  then  so  obscure  and  remote?  A  grotesque 
interpretation  may  be  seen  in  the  recent  commentary  of  Bertholet,  Das 
Hud,  Hesekiel  erkldrt  (1897),  p.  50. 


-mi  FOREDOOMED  TO    DEATH  Book  X 

(§  856).  But  when  Babylon  became  supreme  the  sun- 
god  was  again  made  an  object  of  reverence.  This  was 
the  climax  of  ""abominations,"  since  it  was  a  more  fla- 
grant defiance  of  Jehovah  than  any  other  mode  of  false 
worship  practised  in  Jerusalem. 

§  1192.  The  scene  is  now  changed:  after  this  vision 
of  sin  comes  a  vision  of  the  oft-predicted  punishment. 
Characteristically,  the  image  takes  its  form  from  in- 
cidents of  Assyrian  and  Babylonian  warfare,  such  as 
have  been  brought  in  abundance  before  our  own  eyes  in 
the  cuneiform  records.  In  the  annals  of  the  great  con- 
querors it  is  often  related  1  that  the  leaders  in  revolt  and 
those  of  the  people  generally  who  had  ""committed  sin" 
were  put  to  a  cruel  death,  Avhile  those  who  were  guiltless 
of  rebellion  were  spared.  Sometimes  the  number  of  the 
slain  or  the  deported  is  given  with  absolute  exactness.2 
Such  discrimination  must  have  been  the  result  of  careful 
inquiry,  after  which  the  doom  was  relentlessly  fulfilled.  A 
similar  process  of  selection,  condemnation,  and  execution 
is  seen  Ivy  Ezekiel  as  enacted  in  Jerusalem  (ch.  ix.). 
Seven  messengers  from  the  throne  of  Jehovah  are  charged 
with  "the  impending  punishment  of  the  city."3  To  one 
of  these  legates,  arrayed  in  white,  the  S}"mbol  of  the 
divine  righteousness  (cf.  Dan.  x.  5;  xii.  0;  Rev.  iii.  4  f . ; 
xv.  6),  and  bearing  writing  materials,  was  committed 
the  task  of  marking  with  a  cross  the  foreheads  of  those 
who  "  were  nioaninp-  and  sighing  for  all  the  abomina- 
tions  "  that  were  done  in  Jerusalem.  The  remaining 
six,  with  "weapons  of  destruction"  in  their  hands, 
were  charged  to  follow  him  and  slay  without  mercy  all 
who  had  not  the  badge  of  immunity  (cf.  Rev.  vii.  3,  ctr. 
xiv.  9). 

1  E.g.  by  Sinacherib,  in  his  report  of  the  capture  of  Ekron  (I  R.  41, 
1  ff.);  see  §  675. 

2  As  was  actually  done  in  fulfilment  of  this  prediction  by  Nebuchad- 
rezzar's general  (2  K.  xxv.  18  ft'.). 

3  See  Cornill,  Der  Prophet  Ezechii-1,  p.  226  f.,  note  on  ch.  ix.  1. 


Ch.  VIII,  §  1195       VISIONS   Or    DESTRUCTION  261 

§  1193.  To  set  forth  the  utter  destruction  of  the  city 
itself  a  new  image  is  resorted  to,  whose  reality  was  only 
too  well  known  in  the  Assyrian  and  Babylonian  times 
throughout  western  Asia.  Still  in  the  guise  of  a  vision 
the  city  is  revealed  as  about  to  be  enveloped  in  the  flames 
of  avenging  lire.  A  corresponding  revelation  is  nude  of 
the  shining  brightness  of  the  cherubim,  who  are  again 
displayed  in  the  Holy  of  Holies.  The  terrible  conception 
that  the  firing  of  Jerusalem  by  the  Chaldaean  conquerors 
after  its  capture  was  actually  of  divine  ordination  is 
vividly  symbolized:  A  cherub  takes  of  the  coals  of  fire 
that  burn  within  the  Avheels  of  the  celestial  figures  and 
delivers  them  to  the  white-clad  angel  of  destruction  to  be 
seattered  over  the  city  (eh.  x.). 

§  1104.  Transported  again  to  the  east  side  of  the 
temple,  the  prophet  sees  before  the  gate  a  number  of  the 
princes  (cf.  §  1183),  "devising  iniquity  and  wicked 
counsel,"  which  the  context  shows  to  refer  to  the  suicidal 
policy  of  rebellion  against  Bab}don  (xi.  1-3).  The  atti- 
tude of  the  revolutionists  is  instructive.  They  said,  "It 
is  not  just  now  that  we  must  build  houses:1  this  city  is 
the  cauldron  and  we  are  the  flesh";  or,  in  modern  lan- 
guage, "This  is  no  time  for  the  occupations  of  peace. 
We  are  stewing  here  in  our  own  juice;  let  us  strike  for 
freedom."  At  this,  the  prophet  is  commanded  to  declare 
that  they  shall  not  in  any  case  remain  in  the  city,  but 
shall  be  delivered  up  to  strangers  for  captivity  and  violent 
death.  While  he  is  prophesying,  one  of  the  ringleaders 
suddenly  falls  dead  (xi.  4-13). 

§  1195.  Before  the  vision  fades,  however,  there  comes 
an  enlargement  of  the  prophet's  outlook.  Not  all  Israel 
was  in  Jerusalem.  The  exiles,  present  and  to  come, 
banished  from  the  city  and  the  temple,  Jehovah  himself 

1  The  full  expression  is  given  in  Ez.  xxviii.  l'ij  ;  Isa.  lxv.  l'1  ;  Jer.  xxix. 
5,  28.  The  phrase  is  equivalenl  to  settling  down  quietly.  The  am i thesis 
is  the  saying,  "to  your  tents,  o  Israel  !""  referring  to  the  unsettlement 
and  strife  characteristic  of  the  nomadic  life  (§  4'',;,,. 


2G2  THE    FLIGHT   SYMBOLIZED  Book  X 

scarcely  revealing  his  presence  to  them,1  were  yet  to  be 
restored  to  their  own  and  Jehovah's  land  and  city. 
"And  they  shall  come  thither,  and  they  shall  take  away 
all  its  horrors  and  all  its  abominations.  And  I  will  give 
them  another2  heart,  and  a  new  spirit  I  will  put  within 
them,8  and  will  remove  the  heart  of  stone  from  them  and 
give  them  a  heart  of  flesh,  to  the  end  that  they  may  walk 
in  my  statutes  and  keep  my  judgments  and  do  them,  and 
may  be  to  me  a  people  and  I  to  them  may  be  a  God.  ..." 
(xi.  14-21). 

§  1196.  After  the  promise  and  the  curse  the  glory  of 
Jehovah  removed  from  before  the  temple  and  rested  upon 
the  Mount  of  Olives  (vs.  22,  23),  no  longer  to  protect 
and  bless  his  city,  but  to  stand  aloof  while  it  fulfilled 
its  doom.  Released  from  his  trance  the  prophet  finds 
himself  once  more  among  his  companions  in  exile,  to 
whom  he  relates  all  that  it  had  been  given  him  to  see 
(vs.  24,  25). 

§  1197.  Soon  thereafter,  at  a  date  not  indicated,  Eze- 
kiel,  in  an  ecstatic  mood,  is  impelled  to  another  symbolic 
action,  so  as  to  make  still  more  impressive  the  impending 
fall  of  Jerusalem  and  the  end  of  the  kingdom.  He  is  to 
take  his  worldly  possessions  out  of  his  house  in  the  day- 
time, making  ready  for  a  flight  under  the  cover  of  darkness. 
Then,  when  the  night  has  come,  he  is  to  break  through  the 
wall  of  the  city  and  seek  to  escape  with  his  burden  upon 
his  shoulder  (Ez.  xii.  1-7).  This  proceeding  is  explained 
to  mean  that  the  "  prince  "  Zedekiah  is  to  attempt  to  save 
himself  by  flight  at  the  taking  of  his  city,  but  should  be 
caught  outside  the  wall  in  a  net  which  Jehovah  himself 
was  to  spread  over  him  (cf.  xvii.  20;  xxxii.  3;  Hos.  vii. 
12).  Thence  he  was  to  be  brought  as  a  captive  to  Babylon. 
That  city  he  was  not  to  see  with  his  eyes  (cf.  2  K. 
xxv.  7),  though  he  was  to  live  there  till  his  death.      Of 

1  Notice  xi.  16,  "  I  have  been  a  sanctuary  to  them  but  little." 

2  So  the  Sept.  8  So  the  ancient  Versions. 


Cii.  VIII,  §  1199        PROPHETS  AND  DIVINERS  263 

his  subjects  but  a  few  should  survive  the  destroying  sword 

(xii.  8-1D).1 

§  1198.  A  series  of  instructive  utterances  are  now 
recorded,  which  show  the  inherent  necessity  and  the 
moral  justification  of  the  fall  of  Jerusalem  and  the  ruin 
of  the  state  (Ez.  xiii.-xix.).  Prefaced  to  these  are  two 
striking  declarations  aimed  at  the  popular  delusion  that 
effective  prophecy  was  at  an  end  in  Israel  and  the  kindred 
belief  that  any  prediction  that  came  from  Jehovah  must 
apply,  not  to  the  near,  but  to  the  distant  future  (xii, 
21-28).  The  current  sayings  thus  denounced  ran  thus: 
"  The  da}-s  keep  stretching  out  and  visions  come  to 
naught"  (v.  22),  and,  "The  vision  that  he  is  seeing  is 
for  many  days  hence,  and  for  distant  times  he  is  prophesy- 
ing." Against  those  who  thus  bring  true  prophecy  into 
disrepute  the  genuine  prophet  of  Jehovah  brings  a  formal 
indictment  (ch.  xiii.).  They  accelerate  the  destruction 
of  the  house  of  Israel  because  they  "prophesy  out  of  their 
own  minds,"  so  that  they  never  really  "see"  in  the  true 
sense  of  the  word  (xiii.  2-7).  With  want  of  practical  as 
well  as  spiritual  insight  they  announce  peace  when  turmoil 
and  calamity  are  inevitable  (xiii.  8-10),  like  men  who 
would  stay  up  a  decaying  wall  with  a  mere  coat  of  plaster. 
With  the  first  storm  of  the  wrath  of  Jehovah  it  shall 
tumble  to  the  ground  (vs.  11-10). 

§  1199.  A  fitting  companion  rule  to  that  of  the  prophets 
was  played  by  their  female  colleagues,  the  employment  of 
whom,  as  a  class  of  professionals,  was  as  much  an  evidence 
of  social  disorganization  as  of  religious  degeneracy.  It 
is  noteworthy  how  in  times  of  personal  or  national  per- 
plexity, when  ordinary  means  of  redress  are  exhausted, 
resort  is  had  to  occult  superstitions  thai  are  usually 
ignored  or  derided.  As  intelligent  people  of  the  present 
da}'  resort  in  sore  sickness  to  a  "Christian  Scientist," 
or  as  Saul,  sore  pressed  by  the  Philistines,  sought  counsel 

1  Another  symbolical  action  (xii.  17-20),  if  it  may  be  so  called,  ia 

simply  an  amplification  of  iv.  10,  11,  10  (cf.  §  1179). 


264  OCCASIONS   OF   FALSE    PROPHECY  Book  X 

from  the  divining  women,  whom,  as  a  class,  he  had  sup- 
pressed, so  now  the  desperate  people  of  Jerusalem  turned 
from  the  prophet  of  Jehovah  to  necromancers  and  enchant- 
ers. The  art  of  these  "prophetesses"1  apparently  con- 
sisted in  procuring  tokens  of  the  divine  will  or  omens 
from  responses  given  in  connection  with  peculiar  amulets 
consisting  of  fillets  or  kindred  attachments  worn  by  the 
suppliants.  By  means  of  these  enchantments  they  "slew 
the  souls  that  should  not  die  and  saved  the  souls  that 
should  not  live  .  .  .  made  the  heart  of  the  righteous  sad, 
and  strengthened  the  hands  of  the  wicked  that  he  should 
not  return  from  his  wicked  way*'  (xiii.  17-23). 

§  1200.  But  the  blame  does  not  rest  entirely  upon 
false  prophets  or  prophetesses,  as  Ezekiel  tells  certain  of 
the  elders  of  Israel  who  come  to  him  to  hear  his  word. 
The  prophets  are  themselves  borne  away  by  the  tempta- 
tion to  answer  their  clients  according  to  their  desires  (cf. 
Mic.  vii.  3).  And  when  the  people  come  to  these  seers 
fresh  from  idolatrous  practices,  or  with  idolatry  in  their 
hearts,  an  "answer  of  peace"  is  in  any  case  impossible 
(ef.  Ps.  lxvi.  18).  Nay,  Jehovah  himself  may  lead  the 
prophet  astray  in  his  vision  (cf.  Isa.  xxviii.  7),  with  the 
result  that  both  deceiver  and  deceived  have  to  bear  their 
iniquity,  and  both  alike  perish  from  out  of  Israel  (Ez. 
xiv.  1-11). 

§  1201.  In  a  passage  of  more  than  usual  power  of 
expression  Ezekiel  next  sets  forth  his  favourite  doctrine 
of  individual  responsibility.  If  his  hearers  doubt  his  as- 
sertion as  to  this  wholesale  destruction,  they  are  assured 
that  even  the  presence  in  Jerusalem  (cf.  v.  21)  of  re- 
nowned spiritual  heroes  of  tradition,  such  as  Noah, 
Daniel,2  and  Job,  would  not  avail  to  save  their  people, 

1  W.  R.  Smith,  Journal  of  Philology,  xiii.  280  f.  Cf.  Peritz,  Woman 
in  tin-  Ancient  Hebrew  <'n1t.  p.  141  f..  and  above,  §  8-31  note. 

2  Here  and  in  ch.  xxviii.  0  Daniel  seems  to  be  a  national  and  even  a 
world-wide  celebrity.  According  to  Dan.  ii.  1,  48,  he  was,  at  a  tender 
age,  made  chief  ruler  in  Babylon  in  003  b.c. 


Ch.  VIII,  §  1204      PARABLES   OF   ISRAEL'S   FATE  265 

since,  indeed,  it  was  impossible  in  the  very  nature  of 
things  that  they  could  save  any  but  themselves  by  their 
own  righteousness  (ctr.  Gen.  xviii.  82).  How  much 
more  when  Israel  is  without  the  presence  of  such  saints 
of  Jehovah,  and  the  four  dark  messengers,  the  sword,  and 
famine,  and  noxious  beasts,  and  pestilence,  are  already  on 
their  way  to  Jerusalem  to  smite  and  not  spare.  "And  ye 
shall  know  that  not  without  cause  have  I  done  all  that  I 
have  done  there,  saith  the  Lord  Jehovah"  (  Ez.  xiv.  12-23). 

§  12')2.  In  two  parables  the  prophet  further  illustrates 
the  character  and  fate  of  the  remnant  of  Israel.  They  are 
compared  (Ez.  xv.)  to  a  vine-stock  that  bears  no  fruit, 
and  being  useless  for  aii}^  sort  of  work  is  east  into  the 
lire.  The  more  familiar  figure  of  an  unfaithful  spouse  is 
elaborated  with  all  possible  detail.  Jerusalem  has  abused 
all  the  kindness  of  Jehovah  (xvi.  1-14),  has  been  guilty 
of  the  vilest  ingratitude  by  her  idolatrous  alliances  with 
alien  nations,  following  upon  her  own  abominations,  in- 
eluding  even  the  sacrifice  of  children  (vs.  15—34).  The 
punishment  shall  be  greater  even  than  that  of  Samaria  and 
Sodom,  which  she  had  surpassed  in  iniquity  (vs.  35-51). 
But  Samaria  and  Sodom  and  even  Jerusalem  shall  at 
length  be  restored  to  favour  (vs.   52-63). 

§  1203.  Before  the  utterance  of  Ezekiel's  next  recorded 
prophecy,  there  is  an  interval  of  about  three  years  (592- 
589  B.C.).  It  was  apparently  a  time  in  which  the  politi- 
cal ferment  of  the  home-land  was  allayed  and  the  prophet 
of  the  Exile  could  minister  with  less  reserve  to  his  fellow- 
captives.  Naturally,  this  brief  period  is  devoid  of  Stir- 
ling incident.     Two  passages  remain  as  memorials. 

§  1204.  One  of  these  is  the  great  discourse  of  the  free- 
dom and  responsibility  of  the  individual  in  the  sight  of 
(rod  (  Ez.  xviii.).  This  conception,  in  which  he  follows 
his  master,  Jeremiah  (cf.  Jer.  xxxi.  20  f.),  was,  as  has 
been  often  pointed  out,  peculiarly  suited  to  the  needs  and 
susceptibilities  of  the  exiles.  Their  whole  education  in 
Palestine,  personal  and  national,  had  tended  to  encourage 


266  INDIVIDUAL    RESP0NSD3ILITY  Book  X 

in  them  the  notion  that  the  individual  had  no  obligations, 
moral  or  religions,  apart  from  the  community  to  which  he 
might  belong  —  the  state,  the  tribe,  the  clan,  or  the  fam- 
ily group  (cf.  §  1000).  Traditional  prejudices  and  in- 
veterate customs;  intercommunal  leagues  and  feuds;  the 
centralizing  tendencies  of  the  national  worship;  the  asso- 
ciations of  ritual  and  sacrifice;  the  sacerdotal  caste  and 
functions, —  all  these  stood  in  the  way  of  independence  in 
thought  and  endeavour  in  the  moral  and  religious  sphere. 
But  these  intellectual  and  spiritual  bonds  received  a  shock 
by  the  breaking  up  of  that  political  and  social  system 
which  had  forged  them  and  kept  them  fast.  And  the 
prophet,  himself  just  emancipated,  would  fain  strike  a 
blow  that  should  rid  his  clients  of  such  fetters  forever. 

§  1205.  Providence  threw  at  his  feet  the  opportunity 
in  the  expatriation  of  the  exiles.  Their  complaint  was 
that  they,  though  the  most  patriotic  and  devout  of  Israel, 
were  now  in  captivity,  while  the  less  worthy  were  enjoy- 
ing liberty  and  citizenship  in  Jerusalem ;  that  in  the  very 
nature  of  the  case  they  must  now  be  suffering  for  the 
offences  of  their  fathers,  quite  apart  from  any  sin  of  their 
own  (cf.  Lam.  v.  7).  With  bitter  resentment  against  the 
obvious  injustice  of  their  lot  the}7  passed  from  lip  to  lip 
the  popular  satire,  "  The  fathers  have  eaten  sour  grapes 
and  the  children's  teeth  are  set  on  edge."  "Not  so," 
reasoned  Ezekiel.  "  Every  soul  is  in  the  hands  of  Jeho- 
vah, not  in  the  grip  of  fate,  and  he  allots  to  each  the  doom 
which  it  has  earned  for  itself,  by  its  own  righteousness 
or  by  its  own  iniquity."  Such  is  the  inference  to  be 
drawn  from  the  doctrine  of  Jeremiah.  The  personal 
application  to  those  who  have  the  care  of  these  souls 
under  Jehovah  is  peculiar  to  Ezekiel,  and  is  taken  up  by 
him  elsewhere  (cf.  §  1342). 

§  1206.  The  last  discourse  of  this  group  (Ez.  xx. 
1-44)  is  given  as  a  stern  reply  to  those  of  the  elders  of 
the  community  who  came  to  him  for  counsel  in  August, 
591  B.C.     It  is  a  copious  rehearsal  of  the  shame  and  sin  of. 


Ch.  VIII,  §  120G  PUNISHMENT  JUSTIFIED  267 

Israel's  past  history  as  a  justification  of  the  coming  wrath, 
with  a  promise  of  final  redemption  in  its  captivity.  The 
theological  importance  of  the  discourse  is  that  the  chas- 
tisement and  salvation  of  Israel  are  represented  as  de- 
pending upon  the  sovereign  will  of  Jehovah  and  the 
necessity  of  his  being  exalted  among  the  nations  of  the 
earth. 


CHAPTER   IX 

REBELLION,    SIEGE,    AND    FALL   OF    JERUSALEM 

§  1207.  The  political  agitation  in  Jerusalem  which 
had  not  been  wholly  allayed  by  the  failure  of  the  half- 
f( unied  conspiracy  and  the  journey  of  Zedekiah  to  his  mas- 
ter in  Babylon  (§  1157,  1171),  was  again  stirred  up  four 
years  thereafter  (589  B.C.)  in  a  more  active  and  danger- 
ous form.  Now  it  was  not  the  petty  communities  of  Pal- 
estine that  urged  revolt,  but  the  turbulent  empire  of  the 
Nile.  Pharaoh  Necho  died  in  594  B.C.,  having  lived  to 
witness  the  occupation  of  Syria  and  Palestine  by  his 
Babylonian  rival,  and  the  defeat  of  the  efforts  made  in 
Palestine  in  598,  doubtless  with  encouragement  from 
Egypt,  to  get  rid  of  the  yoke  of  Nebuchadrezzar.  That  he 
did  not  actively  intervene  on  behalf  of  Jehoiakim  and 
Jehoiachin  was  perhaps  due  to  the  need  of  action  in 
Nubia.  At  any  rate  his  son  Psammetichus  II.  (594-589) 
found  himself  obliged  at  the  beginning  of  his  reign  to 
march  in  that  direction.  Inscriptions  in  the  Greek,  Carian, 
and  PhoBnician  languages  at  Abu  Simbel,  a  little  below 
the  Second  Cataract,  are  probably  memorials  of  the  en- 
campment there  of  some  of  the  mercenary  troops  to  which 
the  dynasty  of  Sais  owed  its  security.  The  rule  of 
Necho  in  Asia  was  attempted  by  the  next  king  Hophra 
(••  A  pries,"  589-564)  after  the  conclusion  of  this  Nubian 
war. 

§  1208.  The  ambitious  designs  of  this  Pharaoh  gave 
to  the  promoters  of  sedition  in  Jerusalem  the  pretext  for 
action    against  the  Chaldeean    tyrant  which   they  had   so 

268 


Ch.  IX,  §1209      NATIONAL   AND    MORAL    SITUATION  209 

long  desired.  It  became  now  a  difficult  task  for  Jeremiah 
or  any  of  his  colleagues  to  make  head  against  the  tumul- 
tuous passion  for  revenge  and  civic  freedom,  nor  was  it  easy 
for  the  average  patriot  to  perceive  how  romantic  was  the 
scheme  of  insurrection.  The  petty  kingdoms  of  Pales- 
tine, which  had  been  cowed  by  the  threats  of  Nebuchad- 
rezzar in  593,  now  banded  together  again.  They  gave 
little  material  help  at  the  testing-time.  But  the  alliance 
with  Tyre  seemed  to  guarantee  the  sinews  of  war ;  and 
Tyre  held  out  bravely  for  many  years  (§  1213).  So  now 
Jerusalem's  heart  went  out  toward  Egypt,  untaught  by 
the  sad  two  centuries  of  her  cajolery  and  fickleness.  The 
exact  time  of  the  agreement  with  Egypt  and  the  begin- 
ning of  the  revolt  we  cannot  determine,  but  the  accession 
of  Hophra  in  589  suggests  an  approximate  date,  and  we 
know  that  Nebuchadrezzar  marched  into  Judah  before 
the  end  of  588. 

§  1209.  We  have  a  graphic  picture  of  the  moral  situ- 
ation1 from  the  pen  of  Ezekiel  in  a  famous  allegory  or 
riddle.  A  great  eagle,  broad-winged  and  variegated, 
came  to  Lebanon,  broke  off  the  topmost  bough  of  a  cedar, 
and  carried  it  to  the  land  of  the  merchants,  an  image  of 
the  capture  and  deportation  of  Jehoiachin.  Then  he  took 
of  the  seed  of  the  land  and  planted  it  as  a  vine  (cf.  Ez. 
xix.  10  ff.)  beside  its  native  waters,  trusting  that  its 
branches  might  turn  toward  himself  —  an  image  of  Nebu- 
chadrezzar  installing  Zedekiah  as  his  vassal  king.  But  the 
ungrateful  vine  spread  its  branches  toward  another  great 
eagle,  —  Zedekiah  turning  toward  Egypt,  —  rousing  the 
just  resentment  of  the  one  who  had  planted  and  .watered 
it  (Ez.  xvii.  1-10).  The  application  is  then  made  in  lit- 
eral   terms:  It  was   a   solemn    covenant   confirmed    by   a 

1  The  chronological  order  of  Ezekiel's  prophecies  is  exceptionally  dis- 
turbed by  the  position  of  ch.  xvii.,  which  would  naturally  come  between 
chs.  xx.  and  xxi.  The  occasion  of  the  transposition  is  apparently  the 
desire  to  place  together  the  three  illustrations  of  the  unfaithfulness, 
ingratitude,  and  perfidy  of  Judab  and  its  kings  (chs.  xv.-xvii.). 


270  THE    GREAT   KING   DIVINING  Book  X 

sacred  oath  to  which  Zedekiah  had  "  given  his  hand." * 
This  covenant  he  has  broken  by  sending-  ambassadors  to 
Egypt.  But  his  perjury  and  treachery  will  avail  him 
nothing.  Even  his  allies  the  Egyptians  will  give  him  no 
help  when  his  city  is  besieged  by  the  Chaldseans.  It  is 
Jehovah  himself  whom  he  has  offended,  and  it  is  his  judg- 
ment which  shall  be  executed  upon  Jerusalem  by  the  king 
whom  he  has  deceived  (Ez.  xvii.  11-21).  Yet  from  the 
very  topmost  bow  of  the  cedar  —  the  house  of  David  — 
a  twig  shall  be  taken  and  planted  which  shall  become  a 
goodly  tree,  making  a  home  for  birds  of  every  wing  —  the 
restored  kingdom  of  Israel  (Ez.  xvii.  22-24).  The  whole 
passage  is  a  pendant  to  the  great  discourse  of  Jer.  xxvii. 
delivered  in  503,  following  up  the  earlier  declaration  of 
Jer.  xxv.,  made  in  604,  at  the  very  beginning  of  the  reign 
of  Nebuchadrezzar  (§  1115,  1157). 

§  1210.  In  default  of  an  official  report  of  the  march 
of  Nebuchadrezzar  against  Palestine  (cf.  §  1213)  we  have 
from  Ezekiel  an  ideal  picture  of  the  Great  King  taking 
counsel  with  his  gods  as  to  the  attack  on  Jerusalem.  It  is 
given  in  the  course  of  a  declamation  almost  lyrical  in 
form  and  spirit,  upon  "  the  sword  of  Jehovah,"  which  is 
described  as  sharpened  and  furbished  for  its  terrible  work 
among  the  doomed  and  guilty  people  of  Jerusalem 
(Ez.  xxi.  1-17).  It  is  the  sword  of  the  king  of  Babylon 
which  Jehovah  uses  as  his  own.  Before  it  is  drawn  to 
strike,  he  who  is  wielding  it  stands  "at  the  parting  of  the 
ways "  at  a  place  where  the  prophet  sets  up  two  finger- 
posts, one  pointing  to  Rabbath  Amnion,  and  the  other  to 
Jerusalem.  In  perplexity  as  to  which  road  he  should 
take,  the  Great  King  resorts  to  his  oracles  :  "  He  shook  the 
arrows  to  and  fro ;  he  consulted  the  teraphim,  he  in- 
spected   the    liver.     In   his    right    hand    comes    the    lot 

1  Presumably  the  oath  was  sworn  both  by  the  gods  of  Babylonia  (cf. 
Ez.  xvii.  1G)  and  by  Jehovah  (Ez.  xvii.  ID),  the  God  of  the  land  whose 
favour  the  over-lord  supposed  he  had  acquired  (2  K.  xviii.  25),  and  in 
whose  local  existence  and  power  he  fully  believed. 


Ch.  IX,  §  1211  WORKING   THE   ORACLE  271 

'  Jerusalem,'  that  he  may  open  his  mouth  with  shrieking 
and  raise  the  battle-ciy,  set  battering-rams  against  the 
gates,  throw  up  ramparts,  and  erect  siege-towers  "  (xxi. 
18-22). 

§  1211.  The  figure,  though  somewhat  mixed,  gives  its 
own  interpretation.  One  feels  himself  transported  to  the 
Babylonian  environment  of  the  prophet,  the  proper  home 
of  oracles  and  prognostications  (cf.  Isa.  xlvii.  12  ff.),  whose 
literature  abounds  with  records  of  omens  for  kings  prepar- 
ing for  warlike  expeditions  or  setting  out  upon  them.1 
The  procedure  here  indicated  was  somewhat  as  follows.2 
The  king  of  Babylon,  or  rather  the  priest  as  his  mediator, 
comes  before  the  image  of  his  god,  a  prescribed  formula 
of  prayer  is  recited,  and  an  animal  sacrifice  offered.  The 
deity  gives  his  answer  through  special  forms  of  the  lot. 
Here  two  are  instanced.  The  liver  of  the  animal  might  be 
inspected,  to  see  whether  its  colour  or  texture  indicated  a 
propitious  result.  But  in  the  present  case,  where  a  choice 
between  two  courses  is  aimed  at,  a  more  specific  mode  of 
decision  must  be  adopted.  Hence  resort  was  had  to  belo- 
mancy  or  rhabdomancy,3  as  it  is  called,  or  divination  by 

1  The  omens  noted  for  the  expeditions  of  Sargon  I  and  Naram-Sln 
(§  00)  were  of  this  general  character.  The  subject  of  such  omens  of 
national  import  is  treated  in  Jastrow,  RBA.  p.  332  If.  Contrast  the  style 
and  spirit  of  the  beautiful  prayer  in  Ps.  xx.,  uttered  under  similar  circum- 

-  (§  1073). 

2  The  "  teraphim  "  are  named  here  as  a  general  expression  in  deference 
to  Hebrew  usage.  The  fitness  of  the  term  as  used  for  the  special  personal 
protecting  deity  of  the  king  is  obvious :  (1)  the  teraphim  were  domestic 
tutelary  divinities;  (2)  they  were  often  consulted  for  oracles.  Cf.  Jud. 
xvii.  5  ;  '2  K.  xxiii.  24  ;  Hos.  iii.   I. 

'■'>  It  is  to  Jerome  that  we  owe  these  terms,  as  well  as  the  earliest  account 
of  the  process  of  divining  by  arrows,  which  he  gives  in  his  commentary 
on  the  present  passage.  SeeGesenius,  Thesaurus,  s.v.  ddp,  where  authori- 
ties are  also  quoted  as  to  the  prevalence  of  the  usage  in  Arabia.  In  con- 
nection with  the  same  subject,  Wellhausen,  Reste  arabischi  n  Heidentuna  s 
(1887),  p.  126  f.,  comments  fully  upon  our  text.  Cf.  W.  R.  Smith;  Jour- 
nal of  Philology,  siii,  p.  27s.  On  Babylonian  divination  generally,  see 
Lenormant.  La  divination  chez  les  Chaldeens  i  largely  superseded  i;  King, 
Babylonian  Magic  and  Sorcery  (1896) ;  Jastrow,  RBA.  chs.  xvi.-xx, 


l'TU  MORAL   SUMMING    DP  Book  X 

means  of  arrows.  A  number  of  these  were  put  in  a  quiver 
or  case,  after  being  inscribed  with  the  name  or  some  other 
distinguishing  mark  of  the  several  objects  represented  by 
them.  They  were  then  shaken,  and  the  arrow  which 
was  first  drawn  out  indicated  the  choice  —  in  this  case 
Jerusalem. 

§  1212.  Thus  Ezekiel  interpreted  the  preparations  for 
war.  the  rumours  of  which  were  borne  by  bus3r  tongues 
to  his  secluded  dwelling.  Pending  the  actual  march  he 
repeats  his  denunciations  against  Jerusalem,  on  account  of 
her  many  gross  and  incorrigible  vices  (Ez.  xxii.).  He  then 
concludes  these  intervening  prophecies  by  an  allegorical 
review  of  the  relations  between  Samaria  and  Jerusalem,  on 
the  one  hand,  and  the  several  foreign  nations  with  which 
they  have  intrigued,  on  the  other,  showing  the  moral  and 
religious  infidelities  against  Jehovah  of  these  two  sister- 
kingdoms  (Ez.  xxiii.).  In  these  as  well  as  in  his  vaticina- 
tions during  the  siege  of  Jerusalem,  we  see  a  paradox  some- 
what similar  to  that  presented  by  Jeremiah  (§  1107  f.). 
A  prophet  overflowing  with  love  for  his  people  uses 
against  them  the  language  of  contempt  and  loathing, 
while  he  seems  to  gloat  over  their  sufferings  and  their 
punishment.  The  explanation  is  (1)  rhetorical  extrava- 
gance of  speech;  (2)  indignation  against  wrong  and  irre- 
ligion  ;  (3)  the  racial  habit  of  looking  at  people  not  as 
individuals  but  as  a  class,  whose  sensibilities  are  not  so 
obvious  to  a  censor. 

§  1213.  The  expedition  of  Nebuchadrezzar  against  Pal- 
estine started  in  588  B.C.  It  was  vast  (Jer.  xxxiv.)  and 
formidable.  He  established  his  headquarters  at  the  central 
strategic  point,  at  Riblah  on  the  upper  Orontes  (§  1038). 
There  he  was  midway  between  Carchemish,  the  fortress 
Avon  from  Egypt,  and  the  border  of  that  country  which  he 
intended  to  subdue.1     Thence  also  he  could  strike  speedily 

1  We  have  monumental  reminders  of  the  marches  of  Nebuchadrezzar 
through  Syria  and  Palestine,  though  unfortunately  they  contain  no 
reference   to   his    military   operations.      In   the   Wady   Brissa,    not    far 


Ch.  IX,  §1213  THE   CAMPAIGN  BEGUN  273 

at  the  revolted  cities  of  Phoenicia.  Tyre,  indeed,  was  with 
Jerusalem  a  chief  point  of  attack.  It  had  long  been 
the  only  Phoenician  state  capable  of  resisting  a  strong 
foreign  power.1  Now,  more  prosperous  than  ever,  it  was 
as  unwilling  to  yield  its  commercial  franchise  to  Nebuchad- 
rezzar as  formerly  to  Esarhaddon  (§  754).  It  is  probable 
that  a  force  was  sent  at  once  to  blockade  the  Tyrians  — 
who,  after  their  manner,  retired  to  their  "  new  Tyre  "  (cf. 
§  681)  and  long  resisted  the  besiegers.  We  do  not  know 
that  the  Ammonites,  after  all  (cf.  §  1210),  remained  in 
revolt.  At  any  rate,  they  were  unfriendly  towards  Judah 
during  this  whole  period  (Ez.  xxv.  1  ff. ;  Jer.  xl.  14 ;  cf. 
xlix.  1  ff.).  The  territory  of  Judah  was  certainly  the  chief 
field  of  the  Chalda3an  military  operations.  While  a  suffi- 
cient army  advanced  upon  and  invested  Jerusalem,  the 
other  fortified  cities  were  rapidly  taken,  till  soon  Lachish 
and  Azekah  alone  offered  resistance  (Jer.  xxxiv.  7),  and 
these  doubtless  surrendered  before  the  fall  of  the  capital. 


from  Riblah,  at  the  foot  of  Jebel-Akkar,  on  the  eastern  slope  of  the 
Lebanon  range,  two  long  inscriptions,  accompanied  by  bas-reliefs,  were 
found  by  II.  Pognon,  French  vice-consul  at  Beyrut,  who  published  them, 
with  plates,  in  his  work,  Les  inscriptions  hiilnjloiu'ouirs  <lu  Wadi  Brissa, 
Paris,  1887.  They  relate,  like  most  of  the  other  inscriptions  of  the  Great 
King,  to  his  buildings  and  fortifications  in  Babylon.  Another  is  written 
in  archaic  characters  on  the  right  side  of  the  Xalir  el  Kelb,  or  Dog  River, 
eight  miles  north  of  Beyrut,  and  was  discovered  beneath  an  overgrowth 
of  shrubs  and  ferns  in  1881.  The  old  high  road  from  Damascus  to  the 
coast  led  along  this  river,  and  on  the  opposite  side  had  already  been  found 
tin'  names  df  Ramses  II.,  Sinacherib,  and  Esarhaddon.  The  inscription  is 
mostly  undecipherable  through  weathering.  What  can  be  made  out  most 
surely  is  a  list  of  wines  of  southern  Syria,  in  which  that  of  Helbon  stands 
( spicuous  (cf.  Ez.  xxvii.  18).  The  contents  of  the  Wady  Brissa  in- 
scriptions show  thai  they  could  not,  have  been  written  as  early  as  Nebu- 
chadrezzar's  first  campaign  (§  1078),  as  Kenan  seems  to  suppose  (Histoire 
du  peuple  d'Israel,  III,  'J88). 

1  We  cannot  infer  from  Ez.  xxviii.  20-24  that  Sidon  had  revolted  from 
the  Chaldseans.  This  brief  prophecy  is  of  -,i  general  character  ami  merely 
indicates  that  Sidon  shall  be  punished,  because  of  old  time  it  had  been  "  a. 
galling  brier  and  a  smarting  thorn  to  the  house  of  Israel."  —  an  allusion 
apparently  to  the  men-stealing  raids  of  the  Phoenicians  (Am.  i.  0). 


274  ZEDEKIAH    SEEKS   COUNSEL  Book  X 

§  1214.  It  was  on  the  tenth  day  of  the  tenth  month  of 
the  ninth  year  of  Zedekiah,  that  is,  in  January,  587  (2  K. 
xxv.  1;  Jer.  xxxix.  1;  lii.  4;  Ez.  xxiv.  1  f.)  that  the 
Chaldaean  army  appeared  before  Jerusalem.  Of  the  details 
and  progress  of  the  siege  operations  we  are  not  informed. 
Presumably  the  north  side  of  the  city,  as  in  all  the  ancient 
sieges,  was  the  quarter  chiefly  assailed.  Only  there  indeed 
could  the  storming  towers  and  mantelets  be  brought  into 
play.  The  resistance  was  stubborn  and  brave;  for  it  was 
known  that  this  final  revolt  if  unsuccessful  would  meet 
with  no  mere}'. 

§  1215.  Of  the  feelings  and  temper  of  the  besieged 
some  indications  are  given  by  Jeremiah.  Zedekiah  fell 
into  a  panic  as  soon  as  the  extent  and  energy  of  the 
besieging  force  were  fully  displayed.  The  words  of  Jere- 
miah were  still  ringing  in  his  bewildered  ears.  Now  that 
their  fulfilment  seemed  possible  the  stern  and  faithful 
preacher  gained  an  ascendency  over  the  king  which  he 
never  wholly  lost.  Zedekiah  had  always  felt  that  Jere- 
miah had  the  ear  of  Jehovah  as  the  rival  prophets  had 
not,  and  as  an  oracle  was  now  in  great  request,  he  sent 
a  deputation  —  Pashhur,1  son  of  Malchiah,  and  Zepha- 
niah  the  priest  —  with  a  message  :  "  Inquire,  I  pray  thee, 
of  Jehovah  for  us ;  for  Nebuchadrezzar,  king  of  Babylon, 
is  making  war  upon  us :  perhaps  Jehovah  will  deal  with 
us  according  to  all  his  wondrous  deeds,  and  he  will  go 
away  from  us  "  (Jer.  xxi.  1,  2).  The  expectation  was  not 
so  fatuous  as  it  might  appear.  The  nearest  precedent 
for  the  present  situation  was  the  siege  of  Jerusalem  by 
Sinacherib.  If  Jeremiah  was  the  true  successor  of  the 
great  Isaiah,  might  not  Zedekiah  be  equal  in  fate  to  his  an- 
cestor Hezekiah,  and  receive  such  an  answer  as  that  which 
presaged  the  destruction  of  the  Assyrian  host  ?  Jeremiah's 
client  was,  however,  soon  undeceived.  The  answer  was, 
if  possible,  a  fiercer  and  more  cruel  threatening  than  any 

1  Not  to  be  confounded  with  the  son  of  Immer,  who  put  Jeremiah  in 
the  stocks  (§1111). 


Ch.  §IX,  1217  UNFAVOURABLE    REPLY  275 

yet  delivered.  It  told  of  the  helplessness  of  the  armed 
defenders  of  the  city,  because  Jehovah  himself  was  to 
fight  against  them.  Jerusalem  was  to  be  taken  and  put 
to  the  flames.  There  was  but  one  chance  of  safety  for 
the  inhabitants:  if  they  were  to  go  out  and  fall  away  to 
the  Chaldaeans,  they  should  live  (Jer.  xxi.  3-10). 

§  1210.  For  such  a  heart-breaking  reply  the  king  was 
scarcely  prepared.  He  had  become  accustomed  to  these 
reiterated  threats  and  had  looked  upon  them  as  outworn 
generalities.  But  they  took  on  a  more  serious  aspect 
when  the  swords  of  the  besiegers  flashed  before  him  in 
the  level  rays  of  the  January  sun.  Moreover,  the  answer 
contained  an  element  of  danger.  The  very  suggestion 
that  safety  might  be  gained  by  individuals  if  they  were 
to  go  out  and  enter  the  camp  of  the  besiegers  must  have 
weakened  the  defence  (cf.  xxxviiL  4),  and  indeed  in  ordi- 
nary cases  would  justify  a  charge  of  high  treason.  Yet 
this  prophet  of  evil  now  added  to  his  offence  by  again 
assuring  Zedekiah  that  Jerusalem  would  fall  and  he  him- 
self be  brought  before  the  king  of  Babylon  for  judgment 
(Jer.  xxxiv.  1-3).  There  was,  however,  a  certain  mitiga- 
tion of  this  cruel  fate:  the  life  of  the  captive  king  was  to 
be  spared,  and  he  was  to  be  interred  at  last  with  a  royal 
funeral  (xxxiv.  4,  o).1 

§  1217.  The  prophet's  softening  mood  towards  Zede- 
kiah was  in  some  measure  both  cause  and  effect  of  a  tem- 
porary change  in  the  conduct  of  both  king  and  people. 
The  resentment  of  the  army  officers  was  smothered  for  a 

1  Indicated  by  the  words,  "With  the  burnings  of  thy  fathers,  the 
former  kings  which  were  before  thee,  so  shall  they  make  a  burning  for 
thee."  This  was  the  burning  of  aromatic  spices  performed  al  the  burial 
of  Asa  2  Chr.  xvi.  14)  and  denied  to  Jehoram  (2  Chr.  xxi.  19).  We 
mus1  nol  take  tno  literally  the  details  of  sueli  persona]  predictions.  It  is 
-  to  say  thai  such  an  interment  was  possible  in  Babylonia  to  the 
exiled  king  of  Judah,  and  equally  unnecessary  to  explain  the  promise  as 
conditional,  like  Jer.  xxxviii.  20  -so  Hitzig  and  Orelli).  Rather  musl  we 
put  the  declaration  in  the  same  categorj  as  the  unfulfilled  prediction 
concerning  Jehoiachin  (§  114-1  if.). 


270  FREEING   THE    BONDMEN  Book  X 

while,  and  the  terrors  of  the  siege  unnerved  the  courtiers 
lately  so  bellicose  and  confident.  Jeremiah  seized  the 
opportunity  to  promote  a  practical  work  of  grace  among 
his  intimidated  fellow-citizens.  We  recall  here  the  part 
played  by  the  system  of  slavery  in  the  social  and  national 
life  of  the  Hebrews  (§  539  ff.).  The  condition  and  treat- 
ment of  slaves  at  this  period  was  of  vital  importance  to  the 
state,  of  more  importance  indeed  to  the  masters  than  to 
the  servants  themselves.  The  habitual  temper  of  the  rul- 
ing classes  (§  587  ff.)  and  the  sudden  changes  of  fortune 
which  had  brought  some  of  the  poorest  of  the  people  sud- 
denly to  the  front  (§  1153),  combined  with  popular  irreli- 
gion  and  frivolity  to  foster  the  selfishness  and  cruelty  which 
seem  almost  inherent  in  Oriental  social  life.  Against 
these  evils  such  legislation  as  Israel  had  ( §  586)  seemed 
to  have  but  little  effect.  For  example,  it  was  an  ancient 
prescription  of  the  first  Book  of  the  Covenant  that  pro- 
vided for  the  release  of  Israelitish  slaves  after  six  years' 
servitude  (Ex.  xxi.  2) ;  and  it  was  not  long  since  the  same 
enactment  had  been  published  in  a  more  precise  and  elab- 
orate form  (Deut.  xv.  12  ff.).  This  humane  and  whole- 
some statute  had  been  disregarded.  Now  it  was  suddenly 
brought  home  to  the  masters  that  such  a  policy  was  sui- 
cidal. Every  freeman  counted  as  a  warrior,  fighting  at  his 
own  expense  (§  520)  :  a  body  of  freemen  counted  for  more 
in  the  defence  of  the  city  than  a  force  largely  made  up  of 
discontented  slaves,  and  Jerusalem  never  had  sorer  need 
of  defenders. 

§  1218.  But  now  this  year  587  witnessed  such  a  jubi- 
lee as  was  never  seen  in  Israel  before  or  since.  Partly 
moved  by  interest  and  partly  pricked  by  an  uneasy  con- 
science, the  masters  released  all  their  slaves,  not  merely 
those  who  had  passed  the  legal  term  of  servitude,  but  those 
also  who  had  been  lately  acquired  (Jer.  xxxiv.  8  ff.). 
The  manumission  seemed  to  propitiate  the  offended  Law- 
giver, for  it  was  followed  by  the  withdrawal  of  the  besieg- 
ing   army.       And    what    appeared  doubly    auspicious,     it 


Cii.  IX.  §  1219  THEIR   REBNSLAVEMENT  277 

was  an  army  of  relief  from  Egypt  that  led  to  the  raising 
of  the  siege.  "For  Pharaoh's  army  was  come  out  of  Egypt, 
and  when  the  Chaldseans  that  were  besieging  Jerusalem 
heard  tidings  of  them  they  went  away  from  Jerusalem  " 
(Jer.  xxxvii.  5).  The  grateful  people  now  became  elated 
with  the  prospect  of  the  defeat  of  their  enemies,  and  ere 
long  they  were  as  confident  and  careless  as  ever.  Soon  it 
occurred  to  them  that  perhaps  their  great  sacrifice  had 
been  unnecessary.  Their  gratulations  were  mixed  with 
the  remorse  of  disappointed  avarice  as  they  saw  themselves 
defrauded  of  their  property  by  their  own  sentimental  weak- 
ness. Such  an  act  of  romantic  generosity  should  be  undone 
if  possible.  The  king  and  the  nobles  took  the  lead  in 
showing  that  it  was  possible,  and  soon  the  poor  freedmen 
found  themselves  again  under  their  accustomed  burdens. 
Nothing  better  illustrates  the  moral  degeneracy  of  Jerusa- 
lem, or  shows  how  good  a  case  Jeremiah  had  against  the 
leaders  of  his  people. 

§  1219.  The  occasion  demanded  a  strong  word  from 
the  prophet.  His  fierce  denunciation  was  perhaps  more 
telling  than  any  he  had  hitherto  uttered.  He  did  not  now 
give  an  oracle  whose  authenticity  might  be  questioned,  or 
any  assertion  of  his  personal  prerogative.  Nor  was  the 
offence  one  of  the  conventional  sins  of  the  upper  classes,. 
whose  reprobation  had  become  a  commonplace.  His  in- 
dignation had  all  the  moral  force  and  freshness  of  Elijah's- 
denunciation  of  the  crime  against  Naboth.  Jeremiah's 
charge  was  irresistible  because  he  could  claim  that  the  suf- 
ferers were  defrauded  of  rights  which  had  been  granted 
to  unfortunate  Hebrews  from  the  very  beginning  of 
the  nation  (xxxiv.  13  f.,  cf.  §  543).  Thus  the  sin  was 
committed  against  Jehovah  not  merely  as  the  God  of 
righteousness  and  mercy  but  also  as  Israel's  ruler  and  law- 
giver. Finally,  the  guilt  of  perjury  was  brought  home  to 
the  sacrilegious  oppressors;  for  the  emancipation  had  been 
confirmed  by  a  solemn  oath  and  covenant  (xxxiv.  18  f . ; 
cf.  Gen.  xv.  Off.). 


278  EFFECT   OF   APPARENT    RELIEF  Book  X 

§  1220.  The  transaction  furnished  a  fine  opportunity 
for  a  renewed  announcement  of  the  coining  doom  of  the 
city.  Indeed,  it  was  a  sort  of  moral  vindication  of  Jere- 
miah's next  disclosure.  For  Zedekiah  had  in  the  mean- 
time sought  once  more  a  favourable  oracle.  Thinking 
that  the  liberation  of  the  slaves  would  procure  the  divine 
favour,  and  that  the  Chaldaeans  would  be  worsted  by 
the  Egyptians,  he  had  sent  another  deputation  to  Jere- 
miah, saying,  "Pray  now  to  Jehovah  our  God  for  us." 
Thus  Hezekiah  had  sent  to  Isaiah  when  Jerusalem  was 
ready  to  fall  before  Sinacherib.  The  answer  now  was 
that  the  Chaldaeans  would  return  to  fight  against  Jeru- 
salem and  would  take  it  and  burn  it  with  fire  (Jer.  xxxvii. 
3-10).  The  oracle  seemed  cruel  and  improbable,  and 
reawakened  the  resentment  of  the  rulers  against  Jeremiah. 
The  Egyptian  interlude  lengthened  itself  out,  and  the 
Chaldaeans  did  not  soon  return. 

§  1221.  The  hopes  of  the  deluded  Jerusalemites  rose 
yet  higher.  With  the  lengthening  reprieve  of  the  city 
the  popular  wrath  against  the  prophet  of  evil  omen  grew 
almost  beyond  control.  It  was  apparently  only  the  moral 
advantage  given  him  by  their  selfish  poltroonery  that  kept 
them  from  laying  violent  hands  upon  him.  Such  an  out- 
spoken rebel  would  be  sure,  however,  to  furnish  occasion 
for  a  plausible  charge  of  high  treason.  The  opportunit}' 
soon  came,  and  in  a  fashion  that  left  his  enemies  nothing 
to  be  desired.  He  had  business  to  attend  to  in  his  native 
Anathoth,  connected  with  his  personal  share  of  the  family 
estate  (cf.  §  1225).  Making  his  way  northward  through 
the  gate  of  Benjamin,1  he  was  arrested  by  a  sentinel  named 
Irijah  on  the  ground   that  he  was  "falling  away  to   the 

1  It  was  near  this  gate  that  the  Chaldaeans  had  been  encamped  (§  1214); 
and  although  it  was  also  the  chief  avenue  of  communication  with  all  the 
northern  country,  the  worse  of  the  two  possible  motives  for  his  attempted 
exit  was  naturally  attributed  to  him.  Doubtless,  also,  many  of  the  citi- 
zens had  already  passed  through  that  same  gate  and  "  fallen  away  to  the 
Chaldeans1 '  (cf.  xxxviii.  19). 


Ch.  IX,  §  1222  JEREMIAH   A   PRISONER  279 

Chalcheans  "  (Jer.  xxxvii.  11-13).  He  denied  the  charge, 
but  in  vain.     Irijah  brought  him  before  the  "  princes,"  who 

constituted  the  king's  council.  The  charge  was  not  so 
flimsy  as  at  first  sight  it  seems  to  us.  The  main  body  of 
the  enemy  was,  to  be  sure,  far  from  Jerusalem,  but  spies 
and  bands  of  scouts  were  everywhere.  It  may  even  have 
been  believed  that  he  was  seeking  a  meeting  with  one 
of  their  emissaries,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  city. 
As  he  was  professedly  expecting  the  surrender  of  the 
city  within  a  very  few  days,  was  it  not  fair  to  suppose  that 
he  would  help  to  make  good  his  prediction  ?  One  or  two 
influential  well-wishers  in  the  council  might  have  cleared 
or  at  least  shielded  Jeremiah.  But  now  there  was  no 
Ahikam  at  court  to  champion  his  cause  (§  1092).  Zede- 
kiali,  though  the  greatest  sufferer  then  and  thereafter  by 
the  word  of  Jeremiah,  was  still  well  disposed  to  him.  But 
he  was  powerless  against  his  own  courtiers  (cf.  xxxviii.  5).1 
So  the  judgment  was  passed:  the  prophet  was  denounced 
and  beaten,  and  then  cast  into  the  prison  reserved  for  state 
criminals.  It  was  the  house  of  Jonathan,  the  official  secre- 
tary, beneath  which  vaulted  cells  had  been  constructed 
(xxxvii.  14  f.).  Here  he  was  left,  to  die  of  starvation 
and  neglect,  like  many  thousands  of  Oriental  prisoners 
before  and  after  him  (cf.  Isa.  li.  14). 

§  1222.  Meanwhile  the  decisive  turn  of  affairs  had 
taken  place  which  settled  the  fate  alike  of  accused  and 
accusers,  of  masters  and  slaves,  of  true  men  and  traitors. 
Not  many  days  passed  when,  as  any  experienced  observer 
might  have  foreseen,  the  Chaldsean  army  again  appeared 
before  Jerusalem.  How  it  had  disposed  of  the  Egyptian 
army  of  relief  we  are  not  informed.  The  Egyptians  may 
have  occupied  Gaza  (Jer.  xlvii.  1  )  and  advanced  no  farther. 

1  Another  passage  (xxxii.  3-5),  apparently  written  by  a.  biographical 
compiler  (cf.  Comill,  p.  63),  states  thai  Zedekiab  had  pul  Jeremiah  in 
prison  because  of  his  announcement  of  the  impending  capture  of  the  city 
ami  (if  the  king  himself.  This  is  also  true  in  the  sense  that  the  royal 
authority  hail  to  he  given  t"  the  sentence  of  imprisonment  for  treason. 


280  AN  HEROIC  D  EFE  N  C  E  Book  X 

Certainly  no  great  battle  was  fought,  and  it  is  reasonable 
to  suppose  that  after  a  slight  skirmish  the  troops  of  Pha- 
raoh llophra  beat  a  hasty  retreat  (Jer.  xxxvii.  7).  The 
(  !haldaeans  met  with  no  opposition  from  the  fortified  towns 
of  Judah.  The  Chaldseans  resumed  the  blockade  of  the 
capital,  fearing  now  as  little  from  the  restless  Egyptians 
as  from  the  unwarlike  Tyrians. 

§  1223.  The  leaders  of  the  revolt  had  had  control  of 
civic  affairs  from  the  beginning  of  the  siege,  and  they 
maintained  it  to  the  end.  They  were,  indeed,  the  only 
ones  in  the  city  capable  of  leadership  in  any  fashion,  and 
to  their  credit  be  it  said,  they  met  the  crushing  reverse 
of  fortune  like  truest  patriots.  They  could  hardly  expect 
deliverance  now,  and  prolonged  resistance  could  only 
aggravate  the  final  punishment.  Yet  there  was  no  sign 
of  flinching,  no  compromise  with  the  enemy,  or  offer  of 
surrender  for  easier  terms.  They  strove  to  the  last  to 
keep  up  the  spirit  of  the  defenders ;  and  however  their 
own  hearts  may  have  failed  them,  they  frowned  sternly 
upon  every  symptom  of  despair  and  every  suggestion  of 
submission.  Let  us  give  our  meed  of  admiration  to  this 
forlornest  hope  of  a  desperate  yet  not  wholly  ignoble 
cause.  At  this  distance  of  time  we  can  afford  to  be  im- 
parl ial.  We  are  not  dealing  with  modern  South  Africans 
but  with  ancient  Hebrew  patriots.  Some  of  them  had 
acted  wickedly  and  all  of  them  foolishly;  but  as  to  the 
mainspring  of  the  rebellion  for  which  they  were  now  suf- 
fering the  penalty,  who  can  say  that  the  motive  was 
wholly  wrong?  That  they  believed  they  were  right  may 
be  argued  from  their  heroic  demeanour  in  the  presence 
of  the  cruel  death  which  from  the  beginning  they  kept 
in  view  as  the  fate  of  unsuccessful  rebels.  To  most 
interested  contemporaries  it  always  appears  that  of  two 
opposing  policies  one  is  entirely  light  and  the  other 
entirely  wrong,  because  the  feverish  demand  for  immediate 
action  obscures  the  larger  issues  of  the  controversy.  For 
us  it  should  be  possible  to  see  that  the  higher  and  broader 


Ch.  IX,  §  1225  JEREMIAH   A    PRISONER  281 

patriotism  of  Jeremiah  might  coexist  in  the  same  moral 
realm  with  the  more  impulsive  and  erratic  self-devotion  of 
his  rivals,  as  the  retrograde  motion  of  the  comet  is  made 
in  obedience  to  the  laws  of  the  solar  system  as  well  as 
the  direct  motion  of  the  planet. 

§  122-1.  Jeremiah  lay  helpless  for  a  time  in  his  dungeon. 
It  was  to  Zedekiah  himself  that  he  owed  his  comparative 
freedom.  With  the  return  of  the  Chaldseans,  the  king's 
trembling  heart  again  turned  towards  the  prophet,  whose 
predictive  word  had  once  more  been  verified.  He  had 
him  secretly  to  his  house,  and  said :  "  Is  there  any  word 
from  Jehovah  ?  "  and  Jeremiah  said  :  "  There  is,"  and  added : 
"  Thou  shalt  be  delivered  into  the  hand  of  the  king  of  Baby- 
lon." After  reminding  him  of  the  failure  and  collapse  of 
the  rival  prophets,  he  concluded  by  begging  Zedekiah  not 
to  let  him  go  back  to  the  dungeon  in  the  house  of  Jonathan. 
The  king  succeeded  in  having  him  placed  in  the  "  court 
of  the  guard,"  that  is  to  say,  in  the  court-yard  adjoining 
the  royal  residence,  where  suspected  persons  and  other 
less  obnoxious  civil  prisoners  were  kept  in  a  sort  of 
"  honourable  confinement,"  though  probably  fettered  by 
the  foot-chain.  Here  he  was  not  to  be  dependent,  as  in 
the  dungeon,  upon  a  casual  visitor  for  a  precarious  supply 
of  food,  but  was  by  the  king's  command  to  receive  a 
griddle-cake  daily  from  the  baker's  bazar.  This  was  sup- 
plied to  him  regular^  till  all  the  bread  in  the  city  was 
exhausted  at  the  end  of  the  siege  (xxxvii.  16—21). 

§  1225.  To  prisoners  of  his  present  class,  friends  and  ac- 
quaintances were  admitted  under  the  surveillance  of  the 
guard.  While  in  this  court  of  the  guard  Jeremiah  received 
a  visit  from  Ilanameel,  his  cousin-german  of  Anathoth. 
Between  these  two  a  transaction  took  place,  singular  for 
the  place  and  time,  but  signally  illustrative  of  Jeremiah's 
transcendent  faith  and  foresight.  It  was  in  connection 
with  the  family  estate  that  he  had  made  the  frustrated 
attempt  to  go  to  Anathoth  (§  1221),  ami  now  Hanameel 
comes   to  see   him  in   his  prison   upon   the  same  business. 


282  A   REAL-ESTATE   TRANSACTION  Book  X 

Jeremiah  was  asked  to  fulfil  the  duty  incumbent  on  him 
as  the  representative  of  the  family  (cf.  Ruth  iv.  4),  to  buy 
the  property  from  Ilanameel.1  This  settlement  of  the 
title  to  his  property  suggested  the  whole  question  of  the 
gloomy  and  desolate  future  of  the  fatherland.  The  visit 
of  Ilanameel,  thus  fulfilling  his  own  thwarted  purpose,  he 
greeted  as  a  providential  token  of  the  final  restoration 
of  peace  and  order.  Hence  he  made  the  purchase  from 
I  [anameel,  according  to  all  the  legal  requirements,2  on  the 
ground  of  Jehovah's  promise:  "  Houses  and  fields  and  vine- 
yards shall  again  be  bought  in  this  land"  (xxxii.  6—15). 
§  1*22(3.  The  inspiration  to  transact  this  business  he  had 
thus  recognized  at  once  as  coming  from  Jehovah.    But  no 

1  There  seems  to  be  general  misunderstanding  of  the  nature  of  this 
transaction.  It  -was  only  the  legal  title  to  the  estate  that  was  in  question. 
Legally,  Jeremiah,  as  the  chief  agnate,  should  own  it,  but  he  could  only 
secure  the  right  by  paying  the  occupant  the  value  of  this  right,  not  neces- 
sarily the  full  value  of  the  property.  This  helps  to  explain  why  so  trifling 
a  sum  was  paid.  The  expositors  attempt  to  show  that  the  seventeen  shek- 
els (about  eleven  dollars)  was  not  an  unreasonable  price. 

-  The  legal  process  of  the  transfer  of  the  title  is  fully  described  in 
Jer.  xxxii.  9-14,  a  passage  which  is  our  only  source  of  information  on 
the  matter.  The  minute  account  needs  scarcely  any  commentary  except 
to  say  that  it  is  now  generally  agreed  that  the  words  rendered  in  V.Y.. 
"according  to  the  law  and  custom,"  which  are  wanting  in  the  Sept., 
should  be  omitted.  Stade  (in  ZATW.  V,  176  f.)  and  Cornill  {Text  of 
Jeremiah,  pp.  22,  04)  follow  Hitzig  in  maintaining  that  there  was  only 
one  copy  of  the  contract,  a  part  of  which  was  folded  up  and  sealed  ami 
a  pari  left  open.  This  is  unnecessary.  It  is  not  supported  by  v.  10  (cf. 
v.  44),  which  speaks  not  of  one  copy,  hut  of  one  document  or  record. 
Moreover,  the  text,  as  left  to  us  after  the  emendations  of  Stade  (followed 
by  Cornill),  speaks  just  as  plainly  as  ever  of  two  copies,  "  the  sealed  and 
the  open"  (vs.  11,  14).  The  only  difficulty  in  this  natural  view  of  the 
matter  comes  from  v.  10,  which  seems  to  say  that,  the  deed  was  sealed 
before  it  was  signed  by  the  witnesses.  Giesebrecht,  who  has  well  treated 
the  question  (Das  Buch  Jeremia,  p.  17<i  if.),  suggests  satisfactorily  that 
the  witnesses  signed  their  names  on  the  outside  of  the  sealed  copy  to 
avouch  the  Eacl  that  it  was  sealed  by  both  contracting  parties.  The  open 
copy  was  to  be  used  for  ordinary  reference,  and  the  one  that  was  sealed 
could  he  appealed  to  in  eases  of  dispute.  Such  we  know  was  the  custom 
among  the  Babylonians,  among  whom  the  forms  of  business  procedure  in 
thw  East  originated. 


Ch.  IX,  §  1227  SURRENDER    ADVISED  283 

sooner  was  the  deed  handed  over  for  safe  keeping  to  his 
secretary  Baruch  than  the  audacity  of  the  performance 
suddenly  overwhelmed  and  disheartened  him.  It  is  such 
traits  as  these  that  bring  this  typically  human  prophet  so 
near  to  us !  Our  deepest  and  truest  intuitions  are  those 
which  surprise  and  awe  us  most  by  their  presumptuous  rash- 
ness. Their  worth  is  approved  to  our  trembling  faith  when 
we  have  turned  them  over  and  over  in  the  lip'ht  that  flows 
from  the  fountain  of  truth.  So  Jeremiah  appeals  to  Jehovah 
in  his  embarrassment.  "  Alas,  Lord  Jehovah !  the  earth 
works  have  been  brought  close  to  the  city  1  to  take  it ;  and 
the  city  is  given  into  the  hand  of  the  Chaldseans,  and 
what  Thou  hast  spoken  has  come  to  pass,  and,  behold,  Thou 
seest  it !  And  Thou  hast  said  unto  me :  Buy  the  field 
for  money  and  call  witnesses,  whereas  the  city  has  been 
given  into  the  hand  of  the  Chaldseans  "  (xxxii.  16,  24,  25). 
To  this  appeal  an  answer  came  rehearsing  fully  the  pre- 
vious announcement  of  the  city's  doom  and  its  justification 
(xxxii.  28-35),  but  assuring  the  prophet  more  strongly 
than  ever  of  the  final  restoration  of  the  old  order  of  things 
in  civic  and  business  life  (vs.  36-44). 

§  1227.  As  the  impending  fall  of  the  city  drew  nearer 
and  nearer,  Jeremiah,  eager  to  save  the  lives  of  the  citi- 
zens, became  more  urgent  in  advising  a  general  surrender. 
His  plea  was  as  far  as  possible  from  being  a  seditious 
harangue,  and  was  indeed  a  common-sense  appeal  to  the 
instinct  of  self-preservation.  "  He  that  abideth  in  the  city 
shall  die,  and  he  that  goeth  out  to  the  Chaldaeans  shall 
live  "  (  xxxviii.  2).  But  as  this  sort  of  counsel  would  make 
an  end  of  all  discipline,  it  had  to  be  checked  and  punished. 
Hence  the  civil  and  military  leaders  demanded  that  Jere- 
miah be  put  to  death.  "For  he  is  weakening  the  hands  of 
the  fighting  men  who  are  left  in  this  city,  and  the 
hands  of  all  the  people,  in  speaking  such  words  to  them" 
(xxxviii.  4).     The   poor  king,  broken   in  heart  and  hope. 


1  The  point  of  this  special  consideration  may  be  learned  from  §  1230. 


284  JEREMIAH    SAVED    FROM    DEATH  Book  X 

and  dreading  a  revolt  against  his  own  person,  yielded  to 
their  request,  with  the  deprecating  remark :  "  Behold,  he 
is  in  your  hand,  for  the  Icing  cannot  do  anything  against 
you."  When,  however,  they  had  gained  the  coveted 
opportunity,  they  hesitated.  The  fatal  deed  was  too 
great  a  crime.  What  seemed  at  first  a  military  necessity 
began  to  look  like  murder,  or  at  any  rate  like  sacrilege 
against  a  prophet  of  Jehovah.  A  happy  thought  struck 
them.  They  would  not  slay  him !  they  would  merely  let 
him  die !  In  the  courtyard,  in  the  quarter  assigned  to  the 
king's  son  Malchiah,  was  a  foul  empty  cistern.  Into  this 
Black  Hole  they  lowered  him ;  then  left  him  to  sink  and 
suffocate,  or  failing  that,  to  starve  to  death  (xxxviii,  5,  6). 
§  1228.  From  the  fate  thus  prepared  for  him  he  was 
delivered  through  the  good  offices  of  an  Ethiopian  1  court- 
officer,  a  trusty  servant  of  the  king,  Ebed-melech  by  name. 
Taking  pit}r  on  Jeremiah,  he  resolved,  if  possible,  to  secure 
relief.  To  make  his  case  good,  he  appealed  to  the  king  on 
general  principles  of  equity,  and  therefore  approached  him, 
not  in  his  palace,  but  at  the  city  gate  of  Benjamin,  where, 
within  sound  of  the  siege  operations,  he  still  dispensed  the 
royal  justice.  Here  his  bewildered  mind,  freed  from  official 
intimidation,  could  right  itself  for  a  moment.  Perhaps  with 
the  hope  that  in  some  way  the  prophetic  function  might  yet 
bring  help  to  the  state,  he  asserted  his  kingly  authority, 
defied  the  princes,  and  gave  orders  for  the  release  of  Jere- 
miah. At  his  command  Ebed-melech  with  a  sufficient 
guard  of  thirty  men  rescued  the  prophet  from  his  perilous 
durance.  The  prisoner  was  restored  to  the  court  of  the 
guard.  There  he  remained  till  the  day  when  Jerusalem 
was  taken  (xxxviii.  7-13,  28).     To  Ebed-melech  came  the 


1  It  is  suggestive  of  the  immemorial  servitude  of  the  non-Semitic  Afri- 
cans that  Oushites  were  employed  as  body-servants  in  Israel  through  all 
the  history  of  the  kingdom.  Compare  2  Sam.  xviii.  21  f.  and  Jer.  xxxvi. 
14.  The  latter  passage  tells  us  that  the  great-grandson  of  a  certain 
Cushite  in  Jerusalem  was  called  "Jehudi"  (Judaite),  possibly  that  the 
prejudice  of  colour  might  be  disarmed  (cf.  Jer.  xiii.  23). 


Cii.  IX,  §  1230  THE   LAST   INTERVIEW  285 


prophetic  word  that  because  of  his  faith  in  Jehovah  his 
life  would  be  spared  in  the  ruin  of  the  city  (xxxix.  15-18). 

§  1229.  The  nobles  respected  the  resolution  of  the  king, 
and  let  Jeremiah  alone.  Perhaps  they  had  not  so  much 
reason  to  fear  him  now.  They  had  apparently  secured 
some  sort  of  a  pledge  from  Zedekiah  that  he  would  not 
follow  the  counsel  of  Jeremiah  and  leave  the  city  suddenly, 
to  make  terms  with  the  enemy  for  himself  and  his  retinue. 
This  he  could  easily  do,  as  the  palace  commanded  the  gate 
of  the  king's  garden  (§  1231).  We  have  a  full  report  of 
the  last  recorded  interview  between  Zedekiah  and  Jere- 
miah. By  his  private  orders  the  king  had  Jeremiah  brought 
to  him  in  one  of  the  chambers  of  the  temple.  Here  he 
beg-o-ed  of  him  a  final  word  from  Jehovah.  Jeremiah  could 
do  nothing  but  repeat  his  well-worn  message  that  the  only 
safety  for  himself,  his  family,  and  the  city  lay  in  his  going- 
out  to  the  Chakkeans  (xxxviii.  11-18).  The  king,  afraid 
to  venture  against  his  council,  protested  that  he  dreaded 
the  mocking  of  those  who  had  already  deserted  to  the 
besiegers.  Jeremiah  urged  upon  him  the  prospect  of  the 
far  more  bitter  reproaches  of  his  own  household  who  would 
through  him  be  delivered  up  to  the  king  of  Babylon,  be- 
sides the  sure  fate  of  his  wives  and  children,  and  the  sack 
and  burning  of  the  city  (xxxviii.  19-23).  With  this  com- 
fortless assurance  the  king's  last  hope  was  gone.  He 
could  only  beg  from  Jeremiah  that  when  the  nobles  should 
inquire  of  him  what  he  had  said  to  the  king,  he  would 
reply  that  he  had  begged  of  him  not  to  let  him  go  back  in 
the  dungeon  in  the  house  of  Jonathan  the  scribe.  Zede- 
kiah's  fears  were  well  grounded.  The  inquiry  was  made 
and  the  answer  given  as  he  had  desired  (xxxviii.  24-27). 

^  1230.  Not  long  thereafter  came  the  end.  Famine 
within  the  city,  with  its  heart-breaking  horrors  (  Lam.  ii. 
20;  iv.  10),  pressed  the  defenders  sorely.  lint  surer  and 
swifter  than  famine  itself  was  the  work  <>i'  the  Chahheans. 
A  year  and  a  half  had  passed  since  the  blockade  began. 
But  this  was  a  short  time  for  the  successful  siege  of  a 


28G  THE   END   OF   THE   SIEGE  Book  X 

great  fortress ;  and  the  period  of  active  hostilities  had 
been  shortened  by  the  inroad  of  the  Egyptians  (§  1218). 
In  an  important  siege  the  greater  portion  of  the  time  was 
occupied  with  the  erection  of  the  storming-wall  and  the 
other  preparations  for  direct  assault  upon  the  fortifications  l 
(cf.  §  1178).  When  the  city  wall  was  high  and  strong,  it 
was  useless  to  attempt  to  undermine  it.  It  must  be  attacked 
not  far  from  the  summit.  It  was  from  the  earthworks 
erected  for  this  purpose  (Jer.  xxxii.  24)  that  the  battering- 
rams  and  storming-towers  were  brought  to  play  upon  the 
wall.  Hence  enormous  labour  was  necessary  before  a  suit- 
able base  of  operations  could  be  secured  upon  the  sloping- 
approaches  to  the  city.  When  aggressive  action  was  fairly 
begun,  unless  the  besieged  were  numerous  and  skilful  enough 
to  disable  the  besiegers  b}T  arrows  or  other  deadly  weapons, 
only  the  very  strongest  walls  could  long  endure  the  constant 
battering,  followed  by  the  pickaxes,  crowbars,  and  wall- 
hooks  by  which  the  stones  were  dislocated  and  removed. 
Moreover,  a  force  of  defenders,  weakened  or  diminished  by 
famine,  could  not  long  withstand  a  constant  shower  of 
missiles  from  the  siege-towers.  So  we  are  told  of  Jerusalem 
that  on  the  ninth  day  of  the  fourth  month  of  Zedekiah's 
eleventh  year  (July,  586  B.C.)  a  breach  was  made  in  the 
city  wall  (Jer.  xxxix.  2 ;  lii.  5  ff. ;  cf.  2  K.  xxv.  3  f.).2 

1  It  is  from  the  sculptures  of  the  Assyrian  kings  that  we  get  our  chief 
information  as  to  the  methods  of  sieges  in  the  ancient  East,  and  the 
explanation  of  such  terms  as  are  used  in  Ez.  xxvi.  7  ff .  (where  "  buckler," 
in  KV..  should  be  replaced  by  mantelet  or  testudo,  and  "  axes''  by  wall- 
hooks  or  f alces).  The  Assyrians  first  made  of  besieging  an  art  and 
science  which  were  nol  essentially  changed  till  the  general  introduction 
of  explosives.  Illustrations  are  given  in  Nowack,  HA.  T.  367  ff.,  and  in 
BA.  III.  178  ff.  Cf.  the  lifelike  description  of  the  siege  and  defence  of  a 
small  fortress  of  the  fifteenth  century  a.o.  in  Readers  The  Cloister  and  the 
Hearth,  chs.  xlii.  and  xliii. 

-  The  entrance  was  forced  on  the  north  of  the  city.  We  are  not  to 
understand  that  one  of  the  great  gates  wras  broken  in.  The  gates  were 
virtually  impregnable  against  ancient  modes  of  attack,  being  made  of  the 
toughest  wood,  overlaid  with  copper  or  iron,  and  being  shut  and  securely 
barred  when  the  siege  was  closely  pressed. 


Ch.  IX,  §  1232  CAPTURE   OF   THE   CITY  287 

§  1231.  When  an  opening  had  been  forced  in  the  city- 
wall,  it  was  resolved  to  make  the  entrance  by  night,  so 
that  escape  might  not  be  easy  to  any  of  the  people. 
Among  the  Chaldreans  were  many  Jndaite  fugitives  who 
would  act  as  guides.  The  city  was  not  given  over  at  once 
to  pillage  and  devastation.  This  was  rightly  considered 
folly  by  the  business  like  Assyrians  and  their  successors. 
Important  points  were  seized,  and  when  all  was  securely 
held,  a  council  of  the  leaders  decided  in  detail  the  fate 
of  the  place  and  people.  Accordingly  the  Chaldsean 
king's  chief  officers  in  Palestine,  who  had  been  summoned 
in  view  of  the  impending  capture,  were  among  the  incom- 
ing troops  (cf.  Jer.  xxxix.  3).  The  lower  or  newer  sec- 
tion of  the  city  in  the  north  was  abandoned  by  the  besieged 
as  soon  as  the}7  saw  that  all  was  lost;  and  the  Chaldseaus 
advanced  to  the  Middle  Gate  in  the  inner  or  older  wall  that 
separated  the  lower  from  the  main  city".  Here  no  defence 
was  in  any  case  possible,  but  already,  as  soon  as  the  enemy 
had  been  descried,  Zedekiah  and  his  party,  taking  advan- 
tage of  the  darkness,  escaped  by  the  way  of  the  gate  of  the 
King's  Garden,  in  the  southeast  of  the  city,  at  the  entrance 
to  the  Fuller's  Field,  at  the  point  where  the  eastern  inner 
and  outer  walls  came  together.  The  Chaldseans  were 
surprised;  for  it  was  thought  that  a  sufficient  guard  had 
been  set  at  all  the  possible  places  of  exit.  The  discovery 
of  the  flight  was  not  made  till  the  king  and  his  troops 
were  missed  by  the  searchers.  By  this  time  the  fugitives 
of  the  royal  party  were  well  on  their  way  up  the  Arabah. 
They  were  overtaken  near  Jericho,  and  brought  before 
Nebuchadrezzar  in  Riblah  for  judgment  (Jer.  xxxix.  4,  5 ; 
lii.  7-9;  cf.  2  K.  xxv.  4  6). 

§  1232.  The  occupation  of  the  city  was  conducted  under 
strict  discipline  and  without  rapine.3  TheChaldaean  commis- 

1  A  word  or  two  upon  this  poinl  arc  needed.  It  is  impossible  to  det<  r- 
iiiinc  exactly  what  was  done  or  tot  done  by  the  Chaldaean  army  of  occu- 
pation,  because  there  is  no  official  reporl  of  the  taking  of  thje  city.     We 

can,  however,  infer  a  great  deal  from  what  we  know  of  the  procedure  of 


DETAILS    OF    THE   OCCUPATION  Book  X 


sion  made  up  its  report  with  customary  thoroughness,  and  it 
was  a  full  month  before  the  chief  executive  officer,  Nebu- 
zaradan  (Nabuzeriddin,  "  Nebo  has  given  progenj- ")  entered 
to  dispose  finally  of  life  and  property  in  the  name  of  the 
Great  King  (Jer.  lii.  12;  cf.  2  K.  xxv.  8).  Cases  calling 
for  capital  punishment  were  remitted  to  Nebuchadrezzar 
(§  1235).  As  to  the  city  itself  the  principles  were  kept  in 
view  that  had  been  followed  by  the  sanest  of  the  Assyrian 
kings  in  their  treatment  of  Palestine:  only  so  much 
destruction  was  wrought  as  would  make  the  repetition  of 
disorder  impossible. 

§  1233.  (1)  For  this  end  the  effacement  of  the  na- 
tional worship  was  essential.  The  temple  was  therefore 
destroyed  by  fire  —  a  catastrophe  which  subverted  at  a 
single  blow  the  traditions,  the  symbols,  and  the  appliances 
alike  of  the  religion  of  Jehovah  and  of  the  usurping  cults 
that  had  roused  the  wrath  of  reformers  and  prophets. 
(2)  Before  this  or  any  other  house  in  Jerusalem  was  set  on 
fire,  care  was  taken  to  remove  all  valuable  property.     The 

conquerors  under  this  regime,  which  was  essentially  a  mitigated  imitation 
of  the  Assyrian.  We  may  observe  :  (1)  The  army  was  a  great  machine, 
operated  with  a  single  purpose.  — the  carrying  out  of  the  imperial  policy. 
The  officers  were  civil  as  well  as  military  functionaries,  and  their  troops 
obeyed  orders  with  mechanical  precision.  (2)  Under  the  Assyrian  sys- 
tem as  developed  by  Tiglathpileser  III,  the  object  of  war  was  not  the 
destruction  of  enemies,  but  the  utilization  of  their  country  and  resources 
for  the  service  of  the  great  gods  and  their  vicegerent  the  Great  King. 
Hence,  as  a  rule,  deportation,  or  the  enslavement  of  prisoners,  took  the 
place  of  slaughter.  (3)  The  minute  details  of  the  disposal  of  conquered 
cities,  given  by  the  later  Assyrian  kings.  —  the  ringleaders  slain,  the  rest 
of  the  people  spared,  so  many  men,  women,  and  children  carried  away 
captive,  so  much  spoil  of  various  kinds  confiscated,  —  imply  a  careful 
inventory  of  the  contents  of  the  city  and  their  conservation  under  the 
eye  of  responsible  officials.  Hence  the  mention  of  these  officers  in  con- 
nection with  the  entrance  of  the-  troops  into  Jerusalem  in  Jer.  xxxix.  J. 
—  a  passage  added  to  the  original  account,  but  not  a  mere  idle  interpola- 
tion. (4)  Women  and  children  had  a  value  as  merchandise  or  as 
servants,  and  they  were  carefully  spared.  But  the  infliction  of  the  death 
penalty  was  an  execution,  and  as  such  was  a  matter  of  formal  record. 
2  Chr.  xxxvi.  17  is  a  rhetorical  embellishment.  "The  king"  did  not 
enter  the  city  at  all. 


Ch.  IX,  §  1233  FATE   OF   THE    CITY  289 

smaller  utensils  of  the  temple  could  be  transported  intact. 
But  the  larger  articles  of  copper  or  bronze  were  broken 
up  and  carried  away  to  Babylonian  foundries  —  a  per- 
formance which  must  have  impressed  the  vulgar  mind  as 
a  signal  triumph  for  Bel  and  Nebo,  and  which  to  the  new 
administration  served  as  a  partial  compensation  for  the 
loss  of  tribute  and  for  the  "  sacrifices  "  made  by  Babylon 
during  the  war,  if  one  may  apply  here  the  cant  of  modern 
imperialistic  warfare.  (3)  The  city  wall  was  broken 
down.  In  this  the  lord  of  Nemitti-Bel  and  of  Imgur-Bel 
(§  1058)  would  see  the  predominance  of  his  gods.  The 
temple  and  the  wall  were  the  two  essentials  of  an  ancient 
city,  and  both  were  of  deep  religious  import.  In  the  one 
the  deity  revealed  his  grace  ;  the  other,  with  its  gates  and 
fortresses  and  battlements,  was  the  seat  of  his  power  and 
the  symbol  of  his  rule.1  (4)  Every  dwelling  in  the  city 
was  not  destroyed.  But  every  "  great  house  "  was  put  to 
the  flames.  Thus  were  obliterated  all  the  monuments  of 
civic  or  personal  pride,  and  all  that  gave  value  and  desir- 
ableness to  a  residence  in  Jerusalem,  whose  future  inhab- 
itants might  house  themselves  with  fugitives  and  outlaws 
among  men  or  beasts.     Thus  the  Great   King's  officers 2 

1  See  e.g.  Vs.  xlviii.  12  ff.  ;  Isa.  xxvi.  1,  xlix.  16,  liv.  11  f. ;  2  K.  iii.  27  ; 
Neh.  xii.  27,  30;  Rev.  xxi.  1.2  ff.;  Matt.  xvi.  18. 

2  A  list  of  these  commissioners  is  given  in  the  additions  to  Jer.  xxxix. 
(v.  3  ;  cf.  13).  It  has  been  copied  from  some  Babylonian  record  quite 
imperfectly,  the  compiler  not  understanding  the  titles  nor  distinguishing 
them  from  proper  names.  Hence  we  are  not  quite  certain  how  many 
there  really  were.  "  Xergalsharezer "  is  here  accidentally  repeated. 
It  was  a  common  name  among  Babylonian  nobles  (Nergal-sar-usur^ 
"Nergal,  protect  the  king,"  cf.  §  744).  He  was  probably  Neriglissar, 
the  son-in-law  of  Nebuchadrezzar,  who  became  his  second  successor 
(§1370).  " Samgar-Nebo "  (properly  Bumgir-Nabu,  "Nebo,  show  kind- 
ness ")  is  the  only  other  one  of  v.  3  who  appears  to  be  mentioned  by  his 
personal  name,  and  possibly  " Sarsechim,'1  meaning  "prince  of  the  cap- 
tains," is  merely  his  title.  li  Rabsaris  "  is  the  designation  of  an  office  — 
"chief  of  the  heads,"  i.e.  of  the  heads  of  the  army  (Cf.  2  K.  xviii.  17). 
Perhaps  •' Neboshazban  "  (Nabu&ezibanni,  "Nebo.  save  me!"  v.  13)  is 
the  Rabsaris  here  meant.  "Rab-mag"  has  usually  been  explained  as 
"  chief  of  the  Magi."     But  the  stem  of  fi&yos  is  maguS  (  Behistun  Inscrip- 

v  * 


290  CLASSES   OF   CAPTIVES  Book  X 

fulfilled  their  task  (2  K.  xxv.  9-10,  13-17,  cf.  Jer.  lii. 
13,  14,  17-24  ;  xxxix.  8). 

§  1234.  The  chief  sufferers  in  the  city  were  the  wealthy 
and  influential,  and  those  who  had  taken  a  leading  part 
in  the  revolt.  The  prime  movers  in  sedition  were  rele- 
gated to  Nebuchadrezzar's  judgment-seat  (§  1235).  The 
poorest  of  the  people,  with  a  few  leading  men  as  over- 
seers, were  left  in  the  country  (§  1240  ff.).  But  the 
people  of  any  importance  were  taken  away  to  Babylo- 
nia. As  to  the  numbers  of  the  latter  we  have  remark- 
able statements  in  Jer.  lii.  28-30,  to  which  little  credence 
has  usually  been  given,  because  of  the  smallness  of  the 
sum  of  the  captives.  The  writer  makes  out  three  dis- 
tinct deportations.  The  first,  in  the  seventh  year  of 
Nebuchadrezzar,  consisted  of  3023  persons.  The  second, 
in  the  eighteenth  year  of  the  king,  comprised  but  832 ; 
while  in  the  third  (§  1268),  in  the  twenty-third  year,  745 
were  carried  away.  The  total  thus  made  up  4000.  The 
writer  draws  from  a  Babylonian  source  distinct  from  those 
used  in  2  Kings,  and  a  sober  view  of  the  situation  will  show 
that  his  information  is  reliable  and  evidently  refers  only 
to  people  whose  names  were  recorded.  Of  these  there 
would  be  much  fewer  in  586  than  in  597.  To  Zedekiah 
had  been  left  but  a  remnant  of  the  freeholders  (§  1152), 
and  the  kingdom  never  became  what  it  was  under  his 
predecessor.1 

tion),  qoI  mag.  Moreover,  the  Babylonians  had  as  yet  nothing  to  do 
with  the  '-Magi."  For  another  explanation  of  the  still  obscure  name 
Bab-mag  see  KAT.  p.  420. 

1  The  question  of  the  relative  numbers  of  the  several  deportations  has 
been  a  subject  of  controversy,  as  well  as  the  more  fundamental  question 
as  to  how  many  deportations  there  really  were  and  when  they  severally 
took  place.  To  settle  the  meaning  of  Jer.  lii.  28-30,  Ewald  conjectures, 
followed  by  Graf,  Keil,  Orelli,  and  Giesebreeht.  that  "seventh"  is  a 
copyist's  error  for  seventeenth,  on  the  supposition  that  this  was  a  depor- 
tation of  people  of  the  land  during  the  first  period  of  the  siege  (b.c.  ">87). 
This  is  improbable.  (1)  The  year  named  coincides  with  the  deportation 
of  Jehoiachin.  (2)  The  principal  deportation  occurring  in  this  seventh 
year  would  not  be  made  till  after  Jerusalem  was  taken.     The  obvious 


Cii.  IX,  §  1236  FATE   OF   THE    LEADERS  291 

^  1235.  Few  words  are  needed  to  tell  the  fate  of  the 
leaders  of  the  revolt.  Besides  the  king's  party  taken  near 
Jericho,  those  adjudged  guilty  by  Nebuzaradan  and  his  coun- 
cil were  brought  before  Nebuchadrezzar  at  Riblah.  Against 
them  the  rigorous  code  of  the  law  of  rebellion  was  strictly 
enforced.  These  were  the  chief  priest  and  his  deputy, 
three  keepers  of  the  temple,  five  (or  seven)  of  the  king's 
courtiers  left  in  the  city,  the  commander  of  the  garrison 
and  the  secretary  of  the  army,  besides  sixty  men  of  undis- 
tinguished name  (2  K.  xxv.  18  f ;  cf.  Jer.  lii.  21  f.).  These 
were  put  to  death,  probably  by  beheading,  along  with  the 
sons  of  Zedekiah.  The  hapless  king  seems  to  have  been 
the  only  subject  of  torture.  After  witnessing  the  death  of 
his  sons,  his  eyes  were  put  out  and  he  was  carried  to  Baby- 
lon, not  so  much  to  adorn  the  victor's  triumph  as  to  be  a 
warning  to  all  who  might  be  tempted  to  rebel  against  the 
king  of  kings  (cf.  §  1052). 

§  123G.  Such  was  the  fall  of  Jerusalem  and  such  were  its 
concomitants.  Events  like  these  could  not  pass  without  leav- 

meaiiing  of  the  statements  in  Jer.  lii.  has  been  discredited  because 
:ms  so  improbable  that  the  deportation  of  597  could  be  larger 
than  that  of  586.  Meyer  (Entstehung  des  Judenthums,  1890,  p.  112  f.) 
gives  the  weight  of  his  great  name  to  the  hypothesis  that  in  586  the 
greater  number  went  into  exile.  IJv  him,  as  by  the  others,  it  is  not  per- 
ceived that  only  those  would  be  numbered  who  were  independent  persons. 
Slavt-s,  as  well  as  women  and  children,  would  not  be  recorded.  Of  these, 
a   much  smaller  proportion  were  carried   away   in   597  than  in  586,  since 

on  the  former  occasion  it  was  made  a  matter  of  policy  to  remove  the  most 
influential  citizens,  according  to  the  express  statement  of  2  K.  xxiv.  11  tf. 
When  the  writer  in  2  Kings  makes  ou1  "  ten  thousand  "  as  the  number  of 
captives  in  597,  he  is  using  a  round  number  (the  Looser  reckoning  in  v.  16 
being  from  another  source)  and  reckons  in,  besides,  the  women,  children, 
and  slaves.  In  the  lists  of  Neh>  vii.  <<■(.  Ezra  ii. )  the  slaves  are  bunched 
together  separately  and  without  mention  of  the  households  (§  406)  to 
which  they  belonged.  As  to  Jer.  lii..  Stade  (ZATW.  IV.  271  ii. 
Meyer  favour  an  improbable  hypothesis,  that  "the  first  number  given 
refers  to  a  deportation  made  in  598  from  the  country  towns  before  the 
taking  of  Jerusalem  ;  the  second  enumerates  the  runaway-  during  the 
siege  and  before  the  fall  of  the  city,  thai  is,  in  581  ;  and  the  third, 
perhaps  a  supplementary  deportation,  in  582"  (.Meyer,  he).     For  the 

third  deportation  see  §  1260. 


292  THE   LAMENTATK  >XS  Book  X 

ing  their  mark  on  the  Hebrew  literature.  In  one  sense,  and  a 
very  important  one,  they  were  the  cause  of  this  literature. 
For  the  passions  and  sentiments  that  gave  life  and  colour 
to  what  was  strongest  and  most  vital  in  Hebrew  thought 
and  speech  centred  in  the  fate  of  Jerusalem,  even  before 
the  Chaldsean  era  (Micah  iii.  12).  But  it  was  what  this 
catastrophe  involved  that  made  the  doom  of  Israel:  the 
loss  of  the  temple,  the  pains  and  disabilities  of  exile,  the 
hiding  of  Jehovah's  face  from  his  outlawed  people. 
The  calamity  itself  has  but  a  meagre  and  defective  record. 
The  Hebrew  mind  lent  itself  but  little  to  description  or 
exact  narration.  The  event  wras  greater  than  the  fact,  and 
the  moral  significance  of  the  event  greater  than  either. 
Even  the  imaginative  narrative  of  the  epic  is  wanting; 
while  Troy  has  had  its  Iliad  the  greater  woes  of  Jerusalem 
have  been  sung  only  in  dirges. 

§  1237.  Yet  these  dirges,  or  "Lamentations,"  are  the 
best  known  of  ancient  elegiac  poems ;  and,  strangely 
enough,  the  popular  estimate  of  their  reputed  author  has 
been  based  upon  them  rather  than  upon  his  actual  works. 
For  Jeremiah  did  not  write  the  Lamentations.  The  notion 
that  he  was  their  author  is  the  offspring  of  an  age  which 
believed  that  any  biblical  writer  could  have  composed 
any  or  all  of  the  sacred  books,  and  that  only  those  men 
win)  are  named  in  the  Bible  could  have  been  concerned 
in  its  composition.  Many  reasons  may  be  urged  against 
the  traditional  view,  which  was  started  by  the  Septuagint 
translation,  misled  by  an  ambiguous  suggestion  of  2  Chr. 
xxxv.  25.  Jeremiah,  though  he  has  been  a  great  force  in 
literature,  was  himself  no  literary  artist.  But  the  Lamen- 
tations reveal  more  conscious  structural  elaboration  than 
any  other  book  of  the  Bible.  Again,  these  dirges  do  not 
indicate  Jeremiah's  essential  temper  or  his  prevailing 
mood  ;  for  though  a  man  of  sorrows,  he  was  also  a  man  of 
action.  When  once  his  outbursts  of  grief  were  over,  he 
was  forming  plans  for  the  future  and  cherishing  hopes. 
The  writer  of   Lamentations    is  absorbed   in  his  despair. 


Ch.  IX,  §  1238         THEIR   ORIGIN   AND   VALUE  293 

He  sees  no  lifting  of  the  cloud.  His  thoughts  dwell  in 
the  past.  His  words  show  nothing  of  the  original  fore- 
sight and  insight  of  the  great  prophet.  Moreover,  Jere- 
miah had  no  time  or  opportunity  after  the  capture  of 
the  city  for  laborious  composition,  which  must  have 
required  the  leisure  of  the  student  as  well  as  the  practised 
hand  of  the  poet.1  Such  a  series  of  poems  would  seem 
to  have  been  produced  some  years  after  the  calamity 
which  they  depict,  as  the  result  of  reflection  and  amid  a 
circle  of  meditative  devotees.  The  place  of  composition 
was  most  probably  Babylonia.2 

§  1238.  The  chief  value  of  these  unique  elegies  is 
that  they  give  us  a  picture  of  the  destruction  and  desola- 
tion of  Jerusalem,  not  as  foreseen  or  dreaded,  but  as  accom- 
plished facts.  They  are  of  course  not  descriptions.  There 
is  in  them  no  single  complete  picture  or  representation. 
They  are  a  stream  of  ejaculatory  reflections,  whose  note 
is  that  of  breaking  waves  rather  than  that  of  a  running 
brook.  Yet  the  total  conception  of  the  subject  which  we 
gain  from  them  is  fairly  complete,  because  every  one  of  the 
poems  touches  upon  all  the  phases  of  the  great  catastrophe. 

1  Poetry  may  be  composed  rapidly,  but  not  the  poetry  of  the  Be 
Contemptu  Mundi  of  Bernard  of  Clugny  nor  the  poetry  of  the  Lamen- 
tations. It  was  supposed  that  Bernard  mastered  his  metre  by  special 
inspiration,  so  difficult  was  ii  witli  its  triple  rhymes,  following  the  three- 
fold division  of  the  hexameter.  Any  careful  student  of  the  original  of 
t!if  Lamentations  will  acknowledge  the  skill  and  patience  of  their  author,. 
with  his  dexterous  management  of  the  so-called  Kina  metre,  the  sym- 
metrical struct  ure  of  his  strophes,  and  the  laborious  adaptation  of  the 
letters  of  the  alphabet  to  form  a  complete  acrostic.  Ingenious  rhyming 
was  a  favourite  occupation  of  the  scribes  of  <  Hugny,  and  the  writers  that 
moulded  the  Lamentations  were  of  a  kindred  school. 

2  For  the  treatment  of  special  questions,  the  reader  is  referred  to 
Cheyne,  in  the  Pulpit  Commentary  (cf.  Jeremiah,  his  Life  and  Times, 
1888,  p.  177  it".  > ;  Driver.  Tntrfi,  p.  456 ff. ;  art.  "  Lamentations,"  in  Encyel. 
Iirit.  :  W.  R.  Smith);  Lohr,  Die  Klagelieder  des  Jeremia  (in  Nowack's 
••  Bandkommentar  "),  1893.  It  is  not  quite  certain  whether  allot'  these 
poem-  come  from  the  same  author.  Chap,  iii.,  at  least,  which  differs 
most  from  the  others,  is  possibly  later.  This  question  is  not  of  great 
practical  importance,  as  the  theme  and  contents  of  all  are  so  uniform. 


294  AN    ELEGY    OF    SORROWS  Book  X 

If  we  do  not  seek  for  the  actual  facts  of  history,  but  for 
historical  situations,  we  shall  be  amply  rewarded  for  our 
sea nh.  There  are  mainly  three  sets  of  circumstances 
exhibited, —  the  condition  of  the  city,  of  the  temple,  and 
of  the  survivors  of  the  siege.  The  sufferings  of  the 
besieged  b}r  famine  are  made  especially  prominent  (i.  11, 
19;  ii.  11  f.,  19 f.;  iv.  3-9).  Less  is  said  of  the  horrors 
that  accompanied  the  capture  of  the  city  (ii.  12,  20  f.; 
v.  11),  which  are  to  be  judged  of  in  the  light  of  the  restric- 
tions set  forth  above  (§  1232).  The  desolation  of  the 
city,  and  above  all  the  ruin  and  profanation  of  the  sanc- 
tuary, with  the  abolition  of  the  temple  services  (i.  4;  ii. 
6  f. ;  iv.  1;  cf.  ii.  9),  are  a  burden  of  shame  and  humilia- 
tion to  the  followers  of  Jehovah.  The  poet  is  compelled 
to  believe  that  Jehovah  himself  is  the  author  of  the  ca- 
lamity, owning  with  consternation  (i.  12  ft*.  ;  iv.  11  ft*.),  or 
with  submission  and  penitence  (ch.  iii.),  that  all  this  evil 
has  come  as  a  punishment  for  the  sins  of  the  prophets, 
priests,  and  people.  Most  instructive  is  it  to  note  that 
the  author  himself  takes  the  place  of  the  suffering  people 
and  the  ruined  city  (i.  11-22;  ch.  iii.).  This  representa- 
tive conception,  especially  in  ch.  iii.,  is  a  development  of 
Jeremiah's  intercessory  pleadings  (§  1127),  and  is  a  sure 
mark  of  the  progress  of  prophetic  teaching.1 

§  1239.  The  Book  of  Lamentations  is  really  a  group  of 
psalms,  and  these  elegies  would  probably  have  found  a  place 
in  the  Psalter,  the  repository  of  the  anonymous  lyrical  poetry 
of  Israel,  were  it  not  that  one  topic  is  so  elaborately  and  va- 
riously treated  in  them,  and  that  they  became  associated 
with  the  name  of  Jeremiah  at  a  very  earl)-  date.  Are  there 
any  other  literary  memorials  of  the  great  calamity  ?  Two 
of  the  psalms  of  our  present  collection  have  been  by  some 

1  Namely,  as  contrasted  with  the  position  assumed  by  the  poets  and 
prophets  of  the  preexilic  times.  They  spoke  as  members  of  a  suffering 
community,  not  as  themselves  bearing  affliction  on  its  behalf.  Here  we 
have  again  a  criterion  of  the  relative  aires  of  important  sections  of  the 
Hebrew  literature,  especially  of  the  Psalms  (cf.  §  599,  605).  ' 


Cii.  IX,  §  1239  OTHER   MEMORIALS  295 


ascribed  to  this  occasion,  —  Ps.  lxxiv.  and,  with  more  confi- 
dence, Ps.  lxxix.  The  latter,  indeed,  is  almost  a  formal  re- 
sume of  the  contents  of  the  Lamentations.  This  fact  does 
not  exclude  a  connection  with  the  Maccabaean  era,  to  which 
Ps.  lxxiv.  really  belongs.  It  may  still,  however,  be  used 
for  the  illustration  of  the  supreme  calamity,  and  it  shows 
how  the  lanjjuasfe  of  these  mourners  for  Zion  has  become 
forever  the  classical  idiom  of  patriots  and  exiles,  giving 
articulate  expression  to  their  deepest  grief  and  yearning : 
"  If  I  forget  thee,  O  Jerusalem.  .  .  .  '  "  Behold  and  see 
if  there  is  any  sorrow  like  unto  my  sorrow ! " 


CHAPTER   X 

THE   REMNANT   IN   PALESTINE   AND   EGYPT 

§  1240.  The  fate  of  the  survivors  in  Palestine  has  now 
to  be  recounted.  The  story  is  one  of  the  most  melan- 
choly in  the  records  of  Israel.  For  the  few  leaders  who 
remained  the  situation  was  almost  desperate.  The 
chances  were  all  against  rehabilitation.  Deprived  of  the 
walled  city  and  the  temple,  and  of  political  autonomy, 
even  a  multitude  of  Hebrews  in  Palestine  would  have 
counted  for  little.  Shorn  of  such  advantages  an  Oriental 
community  quickly  dissolves,  loses  its  name,  and  is  ab- 
sorbed in  other  tribes  or  peoples.  Such  a  fate  befell  most 
of  those  who  were  left  behind  by  Nebuzaradan  (§  1234). 
It  was  of  little  avail  that  measures  were  taken  by  the 
Babylonian  government  to  give  them  a  chance  of  self- 
support,  that  the  estates  of  the  disinherited  exiles  not 
ruined  by  the  fire  were  given  to  the  landless  sur- 
vivors of  the  siege.  The  spiritless  occupants  of  the  soil, 
without  a  strong  city  of  refuge  or  a  protecting  Babylonian 
force,  made  but  a  feeble  resistance  to  the  Philistines, 
Edomites,1  Moabites,  and  Ammonites  who  witnessed  with 
malicious    satisfaction  the    destruction  of  Jerusalem,  and 

1  That  the  Edomites  especially  exulted  over  the  fall  of  Jerusalem  (cf. 
Ps.  cxxxvii.  7;  Lam.  iv.  L':i  ;  Ez.  xxxv.  5  IT.  ;  Ob.  10 ff.)  has  its  explanation 
in  the  long  and  bitter  struggles  between  that  people  and  Judah.  The 
frequent  seizure  of  the  Edoinitic  territory  by  the  Judaites  now  brought 
a  terrible  reprisal.  Somewhat  different  was  the  gratification  of  Tyre  at 
the  downfall  of  Judah  as  that  of  a  commercial  rival  (Ez.  xxvi.  1  ff . ) . 

296 


Ch.  X,  §  1242  A    NEGLECTED    PROVINCE  297 

thereafter  prowled  through  the  neighbourhood  in  quest 
of  booty.  Over  this  remnant  a  native  governor  Mas 
appointed,  Gedaliah,  son  of  that  Ahikam  who  had  been 
the  patron  of  Jeremiah,  and  presumably  an  opponent  of 
the  ill-fated  revolt.  It  was  at  Mizpah,  not  far  to  the 
north  of  Jerusalem,  that  his  headquarters  were  fixed. 

§  1241.  But  why  should  not  the  Chaldgeans  have 
protected  the  remnant  of  Judah  ?  Gedaliah  was  governor 
under  the  king  of  Babylon,  and  Judah  was  now  a  Baby- 
lonian province.  There  were  several  reasons  why  Nebu- 
chadrezzar decided  to  take  as  little  trouble  as  possible 
with  Judah  from  this  time  forward.  He  had  no  senti- 
mental interest  in  Judah  any  more  than  in  Samaria, 
Damascus,  or  Tyre.  Indeed,  to  him,  as  to  the  rest  of  the 
world  (cf.  §  40),  Judah  meant  practically  the  city  of 
Jerusalem,  and  that  city  he  had  just  levelled  to  the 
ground.  Even  if  he  were  to  restore  it  so  as  to  re-create 
the  nation,  it  would  probably  be  again  a  centre  of  intrigue 
and  disaffection.  Judah  had  acquired  that  reputation  for 
independence  and  turbulence  which  was  afterwards  used 
to  its  disadvantage  by  envious  rivals  (Ezra  iv.  12  ff.). 
Moreover,  political  and  military  conditions  had  changed  in 
the  Westland.  There  important  states  had  once  played 
their  part ;  but  now  they  were  obliterated  or  prostrate,  and 
what  the  Great  King  cared  most  for  was  the  possession  of 
Tyre  for  commerce,  and  the  command  of  the  Philistine 
coast-road  for  defence  or  offence  against  Egypt.  Hence, 
while  making  the  province  responsible  for  order  and  obe- 
dience, a  native  Judaitc  was  appointed  governor,  and  not 
a  Babylonian  officer,  and  the  army  of  occupation  was  with- 
drawn. 

§  1242.  Gedaliah  set  to  work  loyally  and  bravely  to 
fulfil  his  double  trust  to  his  country  and  to  the  Chaldsean. 
His  first  care  was  to  gather  about  him  the  true  men  who 
were  left.  Prominent  among  these  were  Jeremiah  and 
Baruch.  It  would  appear  that  Jeremiah  at  first  preferred 
to  share  the  fate  of  the  exiles ;  for  according  to  the  more 


298  JEREMIAH   REMAINS    IX   JUDAH  Book  X 

probable  of  the  two  reports  left  to  us  1  he  was  among  the 
captives  at  Ramah,  live  miles  to  the  north  of  Jerusalem, 
and  on  the  way  to  Babylonia,  when  a  proposal,  which  had 
the  force  of  an  appeal,  was  made  to  him  that  he  attach 
himself  to  the  settlement  in  the  immediate  neighbourhood 
at  Mizpah  (Jer.  xl.  1-6).  In  this  generous  offer  Xebu- 
zaradan  was  doubtless  influenced  by  Gedaliah  himself,  who 
had  regretted  the  loss  of  Jeremiah  from  his  counsels  and 
who  saw  in  him  the  right  religious  head  of  the  struggling 
community.  Here  apparently  a  final  opportunity  to  return 
was   given    to   those  who  voluntarily  accompanied    their 

1  It  is  a  matter  of  uncommon  difficulty  to  ascertain  exactly  what  became 
of  Jeremiah  between  the  fall  of  the  city  and  his  settlement  in  Mizpah. 
There  is  an  absolute  contradiction  between  the  statements  of  Jer.  xxxix. 
11-14  and  xl.  1  ff.  The  divergence  is  lessened  if  we  drop  xxxix.  11-13 
with  the  Sept..  which  in  fact  leaves  out  the  whole  passage  vs.  4-13.  It 
then  remains  for  us  to  combine  and  reconcile  xxxix.  14  with  xl.  1.  If 
Jeremiah  had  been  banded  over  to  Gedaliah  to  be  cared  for,  how  could 
he  have  been  found  later  among  the  captives  at  the  halting-place  Ramah? 
Among  the  solutions  so  far  proposed,  the  best  seems  to  be  that  of  Giese- 
brecht  (Das  Buch  Jeremia,  p.  213),  who  remarks  that  Nebuzaradan,  on 
his  arrival,  superseded  the  princes  named  in  xxxix.  3.  and  that  the  same 
event  Led  to  the  transfer  of  Gedaliah  from  Jerusalem  to  Mizpah.  He  sup- 
poses then  that  Jeremiah,  who  was  unknown  to  Nebuzaradan.  was  by  him 
assigned  to  the  ranks  of  the  deported,  but  that  when  the  train  of  exiles 
halted  at  Ramah,  Gedaliah  put  in  a  successful  claim  for  his  release.  The 
main  objection  to  this  hypothesis  is  that  it  is  inconceivable  that  Jeremiah's 
career  should  have  remained  unknown  to  Nebuzaradan,  who  acted  on  the 
report  of  the  "  princes.*'  and  who  must  also  have  conferred  with  Gedaliah. 
Jeremiah,  as  a  virtual  partisan  of  the  Chahkeans  and  one  of  the  most 
influential  of  the  citizens,  was,  from  the  beginning  of  the  judicial  inquiry, 
persona  grata  to  the  conquerors.  This  and  every  kindred  theory  assumi  s 
that  Jeremiah  had  no  freedom  of  action  till  the  decision  was  made  at 
Ramah.  Such  a  supposition  is  indeed  favoured  by  the  mention  of  his 
■•  chains"  in  xl.  1,  4,  but  this  is  perhaps  a  graphic  embellishment  of  the 
narrative.  On  the  same  principle  we  must  not  take  the  language  of  xxxix. 
14  too  literally.  It  is  a  working  up,  with  realistic  touches,  of  the  general 
fact  that  Jeremiah  was  released  after  the  capture  of  Jerusalem  and 
handed  over  to  Gedaliah.  Bennett  (The  Book  of  Jeremiah,  ii.  174  f.; 
comp.  Cheyne,  Jeremiah,  hi*  Life  and  Times,  p.  183)  thinks  that  it  was 
at  Ramah  that  Nebuzaradan  first  "  found  leisure  to  inquire  into  the  deserts 
of  individual  prisoners."  Stade  (GVI.  I,  696)  rejects  the  whole  of  ch. 
xxxix.  as  well  as  xl.  1. 


Ch.  X,  §  124:5  THE   GOVERNOR'S   APPEAL  299 


exiled  friends.  To  Jeremiah  the  main  question  was  where 
he  could  best  serve  the  cause  and  people  of  Jehovah.1 
Possibly  the  prospect  of  a  revival  of  the  national  spirit 
under  the  lead  of  Gedaliah,  and  the  desire  to  prepare  the 
way  for  the  restoration,  after  the  fulfilment  of  the  "  seventy 
years,"  helped  to  turn  the  scale.  So  here  at  Ramah,  a 
place  already  associated  in  his  deepest  prophetic  musings 
with  the  grief  and  fate  of  Israel  (xxxi.  15),  he  bade  a 
tearful  farewell  to  his  lifelong  companions.  Knowing 
that  they  would  come  under  the  care  of  his  pupil  Ezekiel, 
he  felt  the  more  reconciled  to  the  breaking  of  the  bond. 
Then  the  lonely  man,  now  doubly  homeless,  turned  to 
the  remnant  of  his  people  with  some  little  hope,  and  with 
imconquered  faith.  With  him  was  Baruch,  who  was  learn- 
ing the  lesson  of  his  life's  disappointment  and  finding  in 
the  desolation  of  the  kingdom  and  its  cities  the  explana- 
tion of  the  master's  startling  message  of  eighteen  years 
before  (Jer.  xlv.). 

§  1243.  The  first  official  duty  of  Gedaliah  was  to  take 
measures  to  reconcile  the  scattered  bands  of  Judaites  to  the 
new  government.  Hence  he  issued  a  formal  appeal  to  the 
chiefs  who  came  to  him  (Jer.  xl.  8)  and  sent  messengers 
with  the  same  declaration  to  those  who  still  stood  aloof. 
The  announcement  was  to  this  effect :  "  Fear  not  to  serve 
the  Chald;eans :  make  your  abode  in  the  land,  and  serve 
the  king  of  Babylon,  and  it  shall  be  well  with  you.  As  for 
me,  I  am  going  to  abide  at  Mizpah  as  agent  for  the  Chal- 
dieans2  who  will  come  to  us.3  But  do  ye  gather  in  wine 
and  summer  fruit  and  oil  and  put  it  into  your  vessels,  and 
abide  in  the  cities  which  ye  have  occupied"  (Jer.  xl.  9  f.). 
For  a  time  the  outlook  was  promising.      Foremost  among 


1  Very  improbable  is  the  conjecture  of  Gr&tz,  partially  approved  by 
Cheyne.  that  Jer.  xv.  10--_>i  reproduces  the  inward  debate  of  Jeremiah  mi 
this  occasion  ;  see  §  1120.  Bennett  (Book  of  Jin  mink,  ii,  176-178)  well 
describes  the  prophet's  state  of  mind  before  bis  decision  was  reached. 

2  Literally,  ••  to  stand  before  tin'  Chaldeans." 

3  That  is,  for  tribute  and  to  take  account  of  the  administration. 


300  HINDRANCES,    HELPS,    AND    WORSHIP  Book  X 

those  who  fell  in  with  the  administration,  along  with  some 
of  lesser  note,  were  Ishmael,  son  of  Nethaniah,  and 
Johanan,1  son  of  Kareah  (xl.  8).  Besides  these  there  was 
an  influx,  smaller  or  greater,  of  Judaite  refugees  from 
Moab,  Amnion,  Edom,  and  other  border  lands,  who  were 
lured  by  the  promise  of  a  settled  government  and  of  an 
unmolested  tenancy  of  the  lands  left  unoccupied.  No 
details  are  given  of  the  progress  of  the  settlement.  It  was 
said  in  Babylonia  that  those  left  in  the  old  land  were  full 
of  hope  and  ambition  (Ez.  xxxiii.  24).  But  we  can  read 
between  the  lines  of  the  record  a  story  of  hard  struggles 
on  the  part  of  the  people,  who  had  border  raids  to  repel  and 
domestic  quarrels  to  settle,  with  little  genius  for  coopera- 
tion and  little  disposed  to  submit  to  authority.  We  must 
also  keep  in  mind  that  to  the  most  of  them  the  Chakkean 
overlordship  was  scarcely  apparent,  being  displayed  only 
to  Gedaliah  and  his  officials  during  the  stated  visits  of 
the  goveruor-in-chief  from  Riblah. 

§  1244.  A  chief  conservative  element  was  the  charac- 
ter of  Gedaliah.  He  was  ingenuous,  patient,  large-hearted, 
mediating  admirably  between  the  governor-general  of 
Syria  and  his  own  turbulent  fellow-countrymen.  But 
there  was  another  helpful  influence,  of  which  Jeremiah 
was  the  directing  genius.  They  were  still  in  Jehovah's 
land,  though  his  ancient  seat  was  overthrown.  In  the 
"Watch-tower"  city,2  within  view  of  the  ruins  of  Jerusa- 
lem, they  could  erect  an  altar  to  his  worship.  There  is 
indeed  a  tradition  (2  Mace.  ii.  1  ff.)  to  the  effect  that  at 
the  command  of  Jeremiah  his  companions  took  with  them 
the  fire  from  the  altar  of   the  temple,  and  that  he  bore 


1  The  Hebrew  text  adds  here  "Jonathan,"  but  the  name  does  not 
appear  in  2  K.  xxv.  2:3  nor  in  the  Sept.,  nor  is  it  again  mentioned.  It  is 
a  clerical  error,  due  to  the  similarity  of  the  two  common  names. 

-  Mizpah  is  the  modern  Neby  Samwil  (cf.  1  Sam.  vii.  5),  about  four 
miles  northwest  of  Jerusalem,  commanding  one  of  the  most  extensive 
views  in  Palestine.  It  was  a  fortress  of  the  second  class  (cf.  1  K.  xv.  22), 
and  was  probably  rebuilt  after  its  destruction  by  Sinacherib. 


Ch.  X,  §  1246  CONSPIRACY   OF   ISHMAEL  301 

away  with  him  to  Mount  Pisgah  the  tabernacle  and  the 
ark.  The  allusion  to  the  sacred  fire  is  especially  signifi- 
cant, as  it  is  apparently  a  distorted  reminiscence  of  this 
reelection  of  Jehovah's  altar  on  Mount  Mizpah.  More- 
over, there  is  more  direct  evidence  that  Mizpah,  an  ancient 
shrine  and  gathering-place  (Hos.  v.  1),  was  now  a  reli- 
gious centre  for  the  remnant  of  Israel.  The  pilgrims  who 
were  slain  by  Ishmael  (§  1248)  as  they  came  to  Mizpah 
are  said  to  have  been  on  their  way  to  uthe  house  of 
Jehovah"  (Jer.  xl.  5).  Here  then  a  new  sanctuary  was 
set  up  under  meaner  yet  purer  auspices;  and  there  at 
last  Jeremiah  had  his  way  in  the  conduct  of  the  sacred 
services. 

§  1245.  But  the  enterprise  which  loyalty  and  piety  were 
cariying  on  against  tremendous  odds  was  frustrated  in  a 
moment  by  fanaticism  and  treachery.  Ishmael,  son  of 
Nethaniah  (§  1243),  the  cleverest  and  most  unscrupulous 
of  the  chiefs,  was  ill  at  ease  from  the  beginning  of  the 
settlement.  He  wished  to  live  in  his  native  land,  but 
he  would  not  endure  the  yoke  of  the  Chakkeans.  He  hated 
Gedaliah  because  of  his  noble  character,  because  he  had 
been  set  above  himself  who  was  of  the  royal  race,  and 
because  he  represented  the  detested  foreigners.  lie  dis- 
simulated his  feelings ;  but  finding  it  intolerable  to  live  in 
the  same  region  with  the  governor,  he  resorted  to  an  old 
ally  and  kindred  spirit,  Baalis,  king  of  the  Ammonites. 
The  two  worthies  hatched  a  conspiracy.  They  could  not 
hope  to  overthrow  the  Babylonian  domination  ;  but  if  the 
governmental  experiment  should  end  in  disaster,  the  over- 
lord might  abandon  the  country  in  disgust,  and  then 
would  come  the  chance  for  the  predatory  Ammonite  and 
the  caitiff  Israelite.  Seizing  an  opportune  time,  he  came 
over  the  Jordan  with  a  small  band  of  raiders. 

§  1246.  Taking  ten  leading  men  with  him  of  his  own 
kindred,  enough  to  do  sudden  murder,  but  not  enough 
to  excite  apprehension,  he  paid  a  visit,  to  Mizpah.  His 
coming   was  not   unexpected    by  Gedaliah,  for   Johanan, 


302  TREASON   AND    MURDER  Book  X 

son  of  Kareah,  had  got  wind  of  the  plot  and  warned  the 
governor, -even  offering  to  go  out  and  put  Ishmael  to  death 
while  his  expedition  was  getting  under  way.  Gedaliah, 
however,  was  too  magnanimous  to  believe  such  treachery 
possible,  and  forbade  Johanan  to  take  any  action  whatever 
(Jer.  xl.  13-ir>).  On  their  arrival,  he  invited  Ishmael  and 
his  party  to  his  table,  where  some  of  his  council  and  the 
resident  Chaldseans  were  present  to  meet  them.  At  a 
concerted  signal  the  guests  fell  upon  the  host  and  his 
friends  and  did  them  to  death  (Jer.  xli.  1—3).  So  little 
had  Gedaliah  mistrusted  the  villains  that  he  had,  as  it 
would  seem,  left  himself  without  a  sufficient  guard,  and 
Johanan  also  was  absent  at  the  very  time  when  he  was 
needed  most.  It  was  the  season  of  the  pilgrimage.  The 
most  popular  of  the  ancient  feasts  (Jud.  ix.  27  ;  xxi.  19  ff.), 
the  feast  of  Tabernacles,  in  the  seventh  month  (§  8G2), 
had  survived  the  national  temple  ;  and  Ishmael  and  his 
[•arty  may  have  made  themselves  welcome  to  the  townsmen 
by  coming  in  the  guise  of  offerers. 

§  1247.  Their  real  feelings  towards  Mizpah,  its  shrine, 
and  the  administration  of  which  it  was  the  centre,  were 
shown  on  the  following  day.  A  company  of  eighty  pil- 
grims from  Samaria,  Shechem,  and  Shiloh,1  with  the  marks 
of  penance  upon  them,  and  bringing  offerings  to  the  sacred 
place,  were  approaching  the  town.  Ishmael  went  out  to 
meet  them,  also  in  the  guise  of  a  mourner,  and  offered  to 
bring  them  at  once  to  the  governor,  so  that  their  safety 
and  comfort  might  be  secured.  Xo  sooner  were  they  well 
within  the  walls,  than  he  and  his  band  murdered  the  whole 
company  except  a  few  of  them  who  saved  their  lives  by 
revealing  certain  places  where  they  had  stores  of  wheat 
and  barle}T,  oil  and  honey.  The  dead  bodies  were  thrown 
into  an  ancient  reservoir,  originally  intended  for  a  military 

1  The  coming  of  those  worshippers  from  the  old  territory  of  Ephraim 
i-  a  striking  evidence  that  the  settlement  at  Mizpah  was  a  religious  suc- 
cess, and  thai  its  "  house  of  Jehovah  "  had,  as  a  resort  of  devotees,  taken 
the  place  of  the  temple  at  Jerusalem.  ' 


Cn.  X,  §  1249  THE    SURVIVORS    MIGRATE  303 

water-supply  x  (Jer.  xli.  4-9).  The  massacre  would  deter 
others  from  resorting  to  Mizpah,  and  thus  weaken  the 
governor's  defence.  He  then  decamped,  fearing  the  ven- 
geance of  Johanan,  carrying  with  him  the  daughters  of 
king  Zedekiah  and  other  residents  of  Mizpah  who  had 
been  committed  to  the  care  of  Gedaliah  (Jer.  xli.  10). 

§  1248.  Tidings  of  these  atrocities  came  soon  to  the 
officers  at  their  stations.  Johanan  with  some  of  his  col- 
leagues and  a  sufficient  force  pursued  after  Ishmael  and 
overtook  his  motley  band,  "  b}^  the  great  waters  that  are 
in  0106011."  At  this  spot,  less  than  two  miles  to  the 
north  of  Mizpah,  already  renowned  for  two  historic 
tragedies  (1  Sam.  ii.  12-24;  xx.  8-10),  the  pursuers  fell 
upon  the  freebooters  ;  Ishmael  escaped  to  the  Ammonites 
with  eight  of  his  men.  The  prisoners  had  made  their 
escape  from  Ishmael  before  the  attack.  Among  them 
were  Jeremiah  and  Baruch  (Jer.  xli.  11-15). 

§  1240.  Under  a  stable  government  this  episode  of 
Ishmael  would  have  been  merely  a  serious  incident.  But 
to  the  remnant  of  Judah  it  seemed  to  portend  certain  ruin. 
Gedaliah  was  the  only  leader  in  whom  both  the  Chal- 
da-ans  and  their  subjects  had  confidence.  He  was  a  rare 
and  noble  soul,  the  last  scion  of  a  worthy  house,  fitted 
to  do  great  things  in  better  times,  but  not  to  deal  with 
hypocrites  and  cutthroats.  The  vengeance  of  the  over- 
lords for  the  assassination  was  now  to  be  dreaded,  and 
none  of  the  chiefs  had  the  address  or  the  courage  to  pro- 
pose a  conference.  Flight  from  the  ill-fated  country  was 
the  first  and  governing  impulse  of  the  panic-stricken  com- 
pany that  thronged  from  all  quarters  about  Johanan. 
Instinctively  they  moved  southward.  Passing  Jerusalem, 
they  halted  near  Bethlehem.     It  was  already  agreed  among 


1  Translate  xli.  9,  after  the  Sept.  (cf.  Cornill  and  Giesebrecht) ;  "  Ami 
the  cistern  into  which  Lshmael  casl  all  the  corpses  of  the  men  whom  he 
had  slain  was  the  greal  cistern  which  King  Asa  had  made  on  accounl  of 
Baasha,  king  of  Israel.  Ii  did  Ishmael,  boh  of  Nethaniah,  fill  with  the 
slain."     (See  1  K.  xv.  17-2:2.) 


304  LAST    CAPTIVITY    AND    DESOLATION  Book  X 

the  leaders  that  it  would  be  best  to  migrate  to  Egypt 
(Jer.  xli.  16-18). 

§  12.")0.  Their  fears  turned  out  to  be  not  entirely- 
groundless.  The  punishment  that  fell  upon  the  land  was 
presumably  aggravated  by  the  desertion  of  the  chiefs, 
which  left  the  Babylonian  province  in  a  state  of  anarchy. 
It  took  the  form  of  another  and  final  deportation.  Of 
this  we  learn  quite  incidentally  from  a  merely  statistical 
passage  which  gives  the  number  of  the  exiles.  "In  the 
twenty-third  }'ear  of  Nebuchadrezzar.  Nebuzaradan,  captain 
of  the  guard,  carried  away  captives  of  the  Judaites  seven 
hundred  and  forty-five  persons"  (Jer.  lii.  30;  cf.  §  123-1). 
Xone  of  these  belonged  to  Johanan's  following,  for  these 
by  this  time  were  well  out  of  the  country.  In  this  final 
displanting,  the  Chakheans  were  not  so  discriminating  as 
before.  They  took  all  the  surviving  males  whom  they 
could  secure  with  their  families.  This  was  in  581  B.C. 
The  ill-fated  regime  of  Gedaliah  had  thus  lasted  over  four 
years. 

§  1251.  The  province  then  reverted  to  utter  desola- 
tion, being  apparently  even  disregarded  by  the  governor- 
general  of  the  West-land  save  for  general  strategic  pur- 
poses. The  old  kingdom  of  Judah  and  Benjamin  became 
a  waste,  visited  only  by  Bedawin  shepherds,  fugitives,  and 
travellers  under  escort.  The  Edomites,  Moabites,  and 
Ammonites  made  less  of  the  desire  of  their  eyes  than  they 
had  hoped.  They  haunted  the  borders,  however,  and 
among  them  a  few  Israelites  found  precarious  protection. 
If  we  wonder  that  there  are  no  sure  signs  of  political  or 
literary  activity  there  during  the  next  forty-five  years,  the 
reason  is  now  manifest.  And  this  was  in  a  sense  the  end 
of  ancient  Israel.  Henceforth  we  know  only  of  Judaism. 
It  was  the  end  also  of  Semitism  as  a  governing  force  in 
southern  Palestine. 

§  1252.  Among  the  fugitives  encamped  near  Bethle- 
hem ( §  1249)  none  had  the  reputation  or  the  dignity  of 
Jeremiah.     He  had  proved  his   political  sagacity  beyond 


Cn.  X,  §  1254  JEREMIAH'S   COUNSEL  305 

cavil ;  and  if  he  had  not  been  so  true  a  prophet  and  so 
profound  a  statesman  he  would  have  been  chosen  the  chief 
counsellor  of  the  enterprise.  But  the  nobles  of  Judah 
never  lacked  a  policy  of  their  own,  and  the  present  leaders, 
reasoning  from  precedent  and  surface  indications,  like  mere 
politicians,  thought  that  their  course  was  marked  out  for 
them  beyond  possibility  of  mistake.  To  stay  in  Judah,  so 
they  argued,  was  out  of  the  question ;  and  where  were  the 
conditions  of  living  so  obviously  easy  as  in  the  borderland 
of  Egypt  ?  Pharaoh  Hophra  was  still  king  of  that  country, 
where  trade  and  agriculture  were  flourishing,  and  he  had 
shown  the  will  at  least  to  help  the  Judaites  in  their  time 
of  greatest  need  (§  1218).  True,  Nebuchadrezzar  might 
come  down  upon  Egypt  for  this  and  other  acts  of  defiance  ; 
but  such  an  eventuality  could  be  reckoned  with  when  it 
should  arrive.  The  minds  of  Johanan  and  his  colleagues 
were  made  up.  But  they  would  not  go  forward  without 
the  divine  sanction,  and  Jeremiah  was  asked  to  furnish  the 
needed  approval  (Jer.  xlii.  1-3).  They  begged  him  to 
declare  to  them  the  mind  of  Jehovah  (xlii.  4-6 ;  cf.  v. 
20)  ;  but  they  felt  sure  of  a  favourable  oracle. 

§  1253.  It  was  not  till  the  tenth  day  after  this  inter- 
view that  Jeremiah  received  the  divine  answer.  It  ran 
directly  contrary  to  the  wishes  of  the  would-be  emigrants. 
It  was  delivered  by  Jeremiah  to  the  whole  company  with 
characteristic  comments  of  his  own.  Jehovah's  declared 
will  was  that  they  should  abide  in  the  land,  where  He 
would  protect  and  prosper  them,  and  would  make  the 
king  of  Babylon  favourably  disposed  to  them  instead  of 
their  dreaded  foe.  If,  however,  they  would  go  to  Egypt, 
the  sword  and  the  famine  from  which  they  were  fleeing 
would  follow  them  thither  (Jer.  xlii.  7-22). 

§  1254.  With  the  assured  hope  of  Jehovah's  approba- 
tion, Johanan  and  the  other  chiefs  had  been  perfecting 
the  organization  and  preparing  for  the  southward  march. 
The  exasperating  delay  in  the  arrival  of  the  oracle  must 
only  have  strengthened  their  purpose.     They  would  rea- 


300  .MARCH   TO    EGYPT  Book  X 

son  that  if  the  divine  will  was  so  unmistakably  unfavour- 
able, it  might  have  been  communicated  sooner,  so  as  to 
relieve  their  anxiety  and  make  some  other  course  more 
possible.  They  therefore  suspected  that  Jeremiah's  mes- 
sage was  not  a  genuine  word  of  Jehovah,  and  his  seclusion 
during  the  nine  days  with  his  trusty  Baruch  gave  occasion 
to  a  surmise  that  Baruch  was  the  prime  mover  in  this  dis- 
courao-ino;  business.  Making  this  a  direct  charge  against 
the  prophet  and  his  secretary,  they  repudiated  the  oracle 
as  a  forgery  (Jer.  xliii.  1-3).  The  march  to  Egypl  was 
begun  or  rather  resumed,  and  ere  long  the  whole  of  the 
settlement  of  Mizpah  with  the  addition  of  many  fugitives 
from  far  and  near,  besides  the  men  of  the  military  posts 
appointed  by  Gedaliah,  found  themselves  in  the  frontier 
district  surrounding  the  town  of  Tahpanhes.  In  spite  of 
his  evil  prognostications  Jeremiah  was  carried  along  with 
them,  still  attended  by  Baruch  (xliii.  4-7).  Smaller  Jewish 
colonies  were  already  in  the  country,  not  only  in  Lower 
but  also  in  Upper  Egypt  (xliv.  1). 

§  1255.  The  prophet's  work  was  now  almost  done.  At 
Tahpanhes  (the  Greek  Daphne,  the  modern  el  Defenneh, 
between  Pelusium  and  Zoan,  on  the  Tanitic  branch  of  the 
Nile),  Pharaoh  Hophra  had  a  palace.  There  was  the 
manifest  beginning  of  the  empire  of  the  Nile  —  a  sover- 
eignty always  odious  to  the  prophets  of  Israel,  and  par- 
ticularly so  to  Jeremiah.  The  remnant  of  Judah  had  just 
evaded  the  jurisdiction  of  Nebuchadrezzar,  the  "  servant 
of  Jehovah,"  and  had  chosen  to  take  refuge  under  the 
shelter  of  the  Pharaoh.  How  little  the  exchange  of  mas- 
ters would  profit  them  was  shown  by  a  symbolic  action 
which  Jeremiah  was  commanded  to  perform.  He  Mas 
told  to  take  large  stones  and  bury  them  in  the  brick-work 
at  the  entrance  to  the  palace.1     Upon  these  stones  Nebu- 

1  At  el  Defenneh,  Mr.  W.  Flinders  Petrie  found,  in  1880,  the  ruins  of 
a  fortress  now  called  the  ''palace  of  the  Jew's  daughter,"  having  a  great 
open-air  platform  of  brick-work,  a  sort  of  mastaba.  Naturally,  the  stones 
of  the  prophetic  story  were  not  found,  and  never  will  be,  since  they  were 


Ch.  X,  §  1256  THE    "QUEEN   OF    HEAVEN"  307 

chadrezzar  should  pitch  his  tent  and  set  up  his  throne. 
Then  he  should  smite  the  land  of  Egypt  with  his  invincible 
sword,  burn  the  temples  of  its  gods,  and  carry  off  us  his 
spoil  its  most  splendid  monuments  (Jer.  xliii.  8-13).1 

§  1250.  In  Jeremiah's  bitter  cup  the  bitterest  drop  was 
the  last.  He  had  already  seen  more  than  enough  of  what 
his  people  could  do  in  the  way  of  impiety  and  idolatry  as 
well  as  ingratitude  and  despite  to  Jehovah's  messengers. 
It  has  already  been  remarked  (§  1183)  that  in  the  most 
desperate  public  situations  the  superstitious  populace  resort 
most  eagerly  to  supernatural  powers  other  than  the  proper 
national  God.  What  Ezekiel  saw  in  vision  of  their  prac- 
tices in  Jerusalem  just  before  the  fall  of  the  city  (§  1183  f.) 
is  paralleled  by  the  religious  observances  of  the  colony  in 
Egypt.  In  each  case  the  women,  as  at  once  most  devout 
and  most  impressible,  were  most  active  in  the  ceremonies 
of  the  idolatrous  cult.  Their  own  goddess  or  goddesses 
were  naturally  the  favourite  objects  of  adoration;  and  in 
the  present  instance  they  had  (xliv.  10)  the  support  of  the 
male  part  of  the  community.  The  particular  deity  here 
honoured  was  the  "  queen  of  heaven,"  whose  worship  in 
the  streets  of  Jerusalem  had  been  denounced  b}r  Jeremiah 
himself  twenty-live  years  before  (§  1094).  This  cult  of 
Ashtoreth  or  Ishtar  was  universal  among  northern  Semites, 
and  therefore  much  more  easily  transferred  to  a  foreign 

never  really  put  in  the  place  described.  If  an  attempt  had  been  made 
to  fulfil  the  command  literally,  the  prophet  or  any  other  outlander  would 
have  been  severely  punished,  —  probably  put.  in  death,  without  benefit  of 
clergy.     The  Judaites,  of  course,  occupied  a  quarter  by  themselvi 

;i~  possible  from  the  Egyptian  magnates.  The  symbolic  action 
was  of  a  character  similar  to  that  of  biding  a  girdle  by  the  Euphrates, 
and  the  like  performances  §  11781,  Jer.  xiii.  1-7).  It  is  hard  to  sec  just 
whal  is  Lllu  $1  rated  by  this  inuch-talked-of  discovery. 

1  By  synecdoche  for  the  obelisks  of  Heliopolia  c  >n,  the  ••  Beth-Shemesh  " 
of  the  text).  The  business  of  carrying  off  Egyptian  obelisks  was  b 
by  the  Assyrian  kings  (§  767  not.,,  and  has  been  carried  on  at  intervals 
ever  since.  The  fulfilment  of  tins  prediction  was  of  ;1  very  general  char- 
acter. The  victorious  campaign  of  Nebuchadrezzar  in  Egypt  (§  1865)  was 
undertaken  after  the  death  of  the  present  Pharaoh. 


308  THE    REWARD   OF   MARTYRDOM  Book  X 

land  than  the  worship  of  Jehovah  himself.  The  plea  of 
her  votaries  that  they  had  abundance  of  good  things  in 
the  old  days  before  the  worship  of  their  goddess  was 
interdicted,  that  is,  before  the  Deuteronomic  reform  (xliv. 
17  f.).  is  not  to  be  taken  too  seriously  (cf.  Num.  xi.  5). 

§  1257.  Lesser  souls  have  found  satisfaction  in  con- 
tempt for  idolatry  and  idolaters.  To  Jeremiah  indignation 
was  more  natural  and  proper.  And  it  actually  seemed  to 
increase  in  proportion  to  the  danger  which  he  incurred  by 
expressing  it.  His  final  denunciation  (xliv.  2-1 1,  20-30) 
was  never  surpassed  in  terrific  wrath.  His  last  spoken 
words  sound  like  a  veritable  curse  upon  the  miserable 
remnant  of  his  people,  scattered  about  in  this  alien  land. 
But  no  words  of  his  were  more  truly  fulfilled.  Egypt 
became  their  grave ;  and  there  has  been  no  resurrection 
save  of  the  indignant  soul  of  the  prophet  himself.  Per- 
haps it  was  the  consciousness  that  Jeremiah  was  in  the 
right,  and  the  sting  of  his  invective,  that  led  the  rabble  to 
put  him  to  death  by  stoning.  This  tradition  as  to  the 
manner  of  his  taking  off  is  in  itself  very  probable.  It  was 
not  an  unfitting  conclusion  to  his  life,  which  for  nearly 
thirty  years  had  been  a  continued  martyrdom. 

§  1258.  The  career  and  character  of  Jeremiah  are  the 
most  valuable  personal  gift  which  we  have  received  from 
ancient  Israel.  In  the  whole  history  of  his  race  he  stands 
in  independence  and  fortitude  nearest  to  the  Christ.  He 
is  typical  of  all  who  contend  for  righteousness  against 
public  opinion,  who  defer  to  the  voice  of  God  because  it  is 
the  truest  and  in  the  end  the  strongest.  This,  it  might  be 
thought,  is  nothing  rare  in  religious  or  civil  history.  Per- 
haps not,  since  Jeremiah  and  Jesus  set  the  example.  But 
this  is  not  all ;  courage  and  fidelity,  moral  attributes  alone, 
do  not  make  the  prophet,  but,  along  with  courage  and  fidel- 
ity, the  more  spiritual  quality  of  insight.  What,  then,  was 
Jeremiah's  distinction  ?  Not  merely  that  he  was  brave  and 
true  against  fearful  odds.  He  has  gained  his  immortality 
and  his  power  mainly  by  taking  his  stand  upon  a  single 


Ch.  X,  §  1260  JEREMIAH   AS   OUB    JUDGE  309 

concrete  practical  issue ;  namely,  whether  he  should,  as 
a  servant  of  Jehovah,  acquiesce  in  or  oppose  the  policy 
of  his  country  when  he  felt  it  to  he  wrone.  The  great 
conflict  of  his  life  was  waged  upon  this  issue.  By  this 
more  than  anything  else  has  his  prophetic  character  been 
estimated,  and  upon  this  ground  he  challenges  our 
judgment. 

§  1250.  The  only  way  to  judge  of  his  position  is  to  put 
ourselves  in  his  place.  How  many  to-day  of  the  servants 
of  God  in  Church  and  State  in  Britain  and  the  Colonies 
take  the  position  of  Jeremiah  ?  How  many  reject  the 
motto:  "Our  country  right  or  wrong"?  How  many  try 
to  define  true  patriotism  aright  to  themselves  and  others  ? 
How  many  have  without  prejudice,  and  in  the  light  of  God's 
truth  and  justice  alone,  tried  to  find  out  how  and  where 
the  responsibility  is  to  be  fixed  for  the  cruel  and  ignoble 
war  waged  between  Great  Britain  and  a  handful  of  her 
kindred  in  South  Africa  ?  How  many,  in  the  spirit  of 
Jeremiah,  hold  up  to  reprobation  the  doctrine  that  what 
is  individually  and  personally  wrong  may  be  nationally  or 
internationally  or  diplomatically  right  ?  How  many  seek 
to  look  at  the  moral  issues  and  the  alleged  causes  of  the 
war  in  the  right  proportion  and  perspective?  And  how 
man}-,  like  Jeremiah,  can  appreciate  the  character  and  the 
divine  mission  of  the  national  adversary  ?  How  many 
think  it  worth  while  to  contradict  the  countless  unre- 
tracted  slanders  against  the  Boers,  heard  or  read,  and  for 
a  time  believed,  by  as  many  millions  of  people  as  the 
Boers  number  thousands?  How  many  rebuke  the  popular 
jubilation  and  triumph  over  the  defeats  and  retreats  of  a 
numerically  insignificant  enemy?  Very  few  appear  to 
have  done  any  single  one  of  those  tilings.  Yet  multitudes 
of  God's  servants  in  the  British  empire  have  courage  equal 
to  that  of  Jeremiah.  Can  the  explanation  be  that  "  her 
prophets  find  no  vision  from  the  Lord"  (  Lam.  ii.  9)? 

§1260.  "Where  no  vision  is  the  people  arc  uncon- 
trolled" (Prov.  xxix.  18).     How  and  why?     Essentially 


310  PRESENT-DAY   PROPHETS  Book  X 

because  the  professional  moral  leaders,  such  as  Jeremiah 
had  to  contend  with,  do  not  know  the  truth  and  effect  of 
things.  In  other  words,  they  do  not  look  into  the  motive 
of  moral  forces  and  their  consequences  in  the  national  life. 
Insight  is  the  gift  of  the  prophet ;  but  this  induces  and 
implies  foresight.  Rather  they  are  one  and  the  same  en- 
dowment, two  modes  of  action  of  the  same  faculty.  Here 
again  Jeremiah  gives  us  an  example  and  suggests  a  practi- 
cal test  of  our  latter-day  prophesying.  Jeremiah's  public 
mission  was  to  expose  a  popular  or  national  fiction.  That 
fiction  was  the  belief  held  by  his  countrymen  that  God  was 
necessarily  on  their  side  because  they  had  been  the  people 
of  his  choice.  Other  prophets  had  already  asserted  the 
opposite.  But  it  was  reserved  for  Jeremiah  to  make  clear 
the  practical  issue.  We  know  how  the  memorable  contest 
resulted.  Jeremiah  was  right  because  he  saw  that  the  ques- 
tion was  not  a  political  one,  not  even  mainly  a  religious 
one,  but  a  moral  one, — that  God's  providence  itself  fol- 
lowed the  moral  law,  that  good  could  not  come  to  the  nation 
from  evil  devised  or  cherished  by  rulers  and  people. 

§  1261.  Our  prophets  have  a  corresponding  fiction  to 
expose.  Instead  of  Zion  and  the  temple  we  take  our 
stand  upon  the  Empire  ;  and  most  of  our  preachers  and 
editors  as  well  as  our  politicians  assert  that  the  supremacy 
of  our  nation  must  be  established  at  any  cost  in  order  that 
civilization  and  morals  and  Christianity  may  be  advanced 
(cf.  §  955).  And  when  all  hell  is  let  loose  in  any  part  of 
God's  fair  earth  (Britain's  soil  and  her  non-combatants 
being  immune  by  the  divine  complacency),  pretty  senti- 
ments are  uttered  from  hundreds  of  presses  and  thousands 
of  pulpits  about  the  triumph  of  righteousness,  the  spread 
of  freedom,  and  the  regeneration  of  the  race.  A  true 
modern  prophet  would  say:  "What  have  been  the  motives 
and  the  methods  of  those  who  abetted  the  war?  Have 
conciliation  and  forbearance  and  the  Christian  virtues 
generally  played  their  part  in  diplomacy?  Has  everything 
possible  been  done  both  to  avoid  and  to  avert  bloodshed  ? 


Ch.  X,  §  1262  SIGNIFICANCE   OF   JEREMIAH  311 

Have  the  wrongs  or  the  sensibilities  of  the  rival  people 
been  regarded  as  well  as  our  own  ?  If  not,  though  we 
may  triumph  now,  we  shall  lose  in  the  end.  The  better 
part  of  Britain's  strength  is  her  moral  prestige.  Her  bit- 
terest woe  and  shame  is  the  ebbing  out  of  her  moral  force. 
Unrighteous  or  unnecessary  wars  insure  and  accelerate  her 
national  decadence."  It  is  the  gloiy  of  Jeremiah  to  have 
shown  that  practical  politics  are  within  the  sphere  of  a 
divine  moral  law.  The  terrible  fulfilment  of  his  predic- 
tions indicates  his  foresight  and  his  insight.  Only  results 
that  might  be  felt  could  quell  the  practical  politicians  ;  and 
their  successors  to-day  are  slowly  but  surely  receiving  the 
same  lesson. 

§  1262.  The  wider  meaning  of  the  life  of  Jeremiah 
is  for  mankind.  He  is  the  most  human  of  the  prophets, 
with  some  failings  both  of  word  and  act,  yet  with  the 
strength  of  a  moral  and  spiritual  hero.  He  is  one  of  the 
few  men  of  history  who,  even  while  we  regard  them,  are 
enlarged  and  transfigured  from  individuals  to  types.  He 
was  the  ideal  patriot,  of  an  order  of  patriots  scarcely 
known  as  yet  to  our  Christian  communities ;  a  typical 
preacher  and  teacher,  who  wielded  a  rod  indeed,  but 
used  it  oftenest  upon  himself ;  a  burden-bearer  for  his 
people ;  a  man  of  sorrows,  who  suffered  for  them  in  his 
own  person,  as  he  loved  them  with  a  devotion  sacrificial 
and  intercessory  (§  1127).  Thus,  too,  he  continued  to 
minister  to  his  people  and  to  humanity  after  the  tragedy 
of  his  life  had  been  finished.  "  The  prophet  never  dies." 
His  life  and  teaching  formed  a  transition  stage  to  the  con- 
ception of  the  "  suffering  servant  of  Jehovah,"  so  infi- 
nitely profound  and  potential.  And  now,  still  more  than 
of  old,  his  spirit  rules  the  true  Israel  from  the  tomb.  For 
while  law  and  ritual  (§  1068)  are  shrinking  slowly  but 
surely  into  the  background,  and  are  going  the  way  of  all 
that  rests  on  form  and  force,  love  and  faith  take  the  abdi- 
cated seats  and  gain  an  ampler  and  mure  potent  sway. 
And  when  we  are  tempted  to  be  untrue  to  the  highest 


312  "THE    PROPHET   NEVER   DIES"  Book  X 

interests  of  our  country  or  of  humanity,  or  to  our  life's 
divine  commission  whatever  it  may  be  (Jer.  xvii.  16),  the 
tear-stained  face  of  Jeremiah  appeals  to  us  through  the 
beclouded  past  like  the  look  of  a  wronged  and  deserted 
friend ;  and  we  hear  his  great  strong  word  sounding  high 
above  the  babble  of  our  time,  a  trumpet  call  to  loyalty 
and  duty. 


CHAPTER   XI 

THE   EXILE   AS   AN   EPOCH 

§  1263.  The  Babylonian  Exile  of  Israel  mast  seem, 
even  to  the  casual  observer,  the  most  extraordinary  event 
in  the  world's  history.  The  whole  career  of  the  chosen 
people  was  a  series  of  marvels,  but  compared  with  this 
all  the  other  events  of  that  career  were  commonplace. 
Such  must  be  the  judgment  of  the  modern  scrutineer; 
and  such  was  the  judgment  of  the  greatest  of  spiritual 
seers,  who  was  not  permitted  to  share  in  the  Exile,  but 
whose  faith  was  nourished  upon  the  foresight  of  its  results. 
To  Jeremiah  even  the  deliverance  from  Egypt  was  made 
insignificant  by  the  outcome  of  the  captivity  (Jer.  xxiii. 
7,  8).  To  him  the  preservation  of  his  people  through  the 
Exile  to  the  Return  was  the  climax  of  the  self-revelation 
of  the  "ever  living  God."  At  the  beginning  of  our  sur- 
vey of  the  national  development  of  Israel  our  attention 
was  arrested  by  the  vitality  and  persistence  of  the  people 
of  Jehovah  (§  434),  as  seen  in  its  evolution  out  of  a  com- 
munity of  fugitive  slaves.  Through  that  stage  of  its 
history,  however,  we  may  follow,  by  flights  of  imagina- 
tion, if  not  by  measured  steps  of  scientific  research,  the 
upward  and  onward  progress  of  the  race.  But  here  it 
would  seem  that  the;  laws  of  development  must  be  set 
aside.  It  appears  not  like  a  process  of  evolution,  but  like 
a  work  of  recreation.  In  the  ancient  East,  even  more  than 
elsewhere,  the  loss  of  political  autonomy  meant  the  obliter- 
ation of  a  people.     Judah  and  Jerusalem  suffered  absolute 

313 


314  PARADOX    OF   THE   EXILE  Book  X 

national  extinction,  and  yet  the  Jews  have  survived. 
There,  too,  deportation  brought  to  pass  what  it  was  designed 
to  accomplish,  the  crushing  out  of  the  national  spirit;  and 
yet  exile  had  the  effect  of  intensifying  the  patriotism  of 
the  banished  Judaites  (Ps.  cxxvi.,  cxxxvii.).  In  all  ages 
and  regions  the  genius  of  a  community  or  a  people  is  most 
active  and  fruitful  upon  the  soil  of  the  home-land  and 
under  its  skies.  But  the  genius  of  Israel,  which  had 
been  almost  extinguished  in  Palestine,  flamed  out  in 
Babylonia  with  unequalled  splendour.  The  spiritual 
endowments  of  Israel,  the  faith  and  insight  and  devo- 
tion that  were  the  hope  of  the  world,  were  stifled  and 
quenched  in  the  days  of  its  freedom  and  opportunity. 
But  the  spirit  of  Israel  in  its  captivity  reclaimed  its 
heritage:  it  "led  captivity  captive  and  received  gifts 
among  men,  that  Jehovah  God  might  dwell  among 
them." 

§  12(34.  But  it  is  not  the  task  of  an  historian  to  resolve 
paradoxes.  The  seeming  contradictions  and  inconsis- 
tencies of  Israel's  career  are  not  isolated  or  irrelevant 
incidents.  They  are  facts  in  vital  and  essential  inter- 
relations. We  must  strive  to  find  the  conditions  of  that 
foreign  soil  and  atmosphere  into  which  Israel  was  trans- 
planted and  from  which  it  drew  the  physical  and  intellec- 
tual nourishment  that  repaired  its  lost  vitality  so  that  it 
could  be  called  "a  scion  of  Jehovah's  planting*'  (Isa.  lx. 
21).  We  must  learn  how  the  loss  of  external  privileges 
and  advantages  became  itself  at  last  actually  a  means  of 
grace,  and  how,  besides,  they  were  replaced  by  new  moral 
and  religious  helps,  that  touched  more  nearly  the  life  of 
the  spirit.  We  must  inquire  what  that  real  Israel  was 
which  remained  intact  during  a  social  and  political  catas- 
trophe, and  what  was  the  essential  vital  truth  that  made 
this  saving  remnant  the  salt  of  the  earth.  We  must 
learn  how  hope  came  from  the  loss  of  hope,  and  a  new 
and  deathless  ideal  from  the  destKrying  of  the  real; 
how  the  visions  of  a  restored  Jerusalem,  cherished  by  a 


Ch.  XI,  §  1265       THE    QUESTIONS    IT   SUGGESTS  .         315 

nameless  prophet,  laid  the  unseen  foundations  of  the  City 
of  God. 

§  1265.  The  necessity  of  a  broad  and  comprehensive 
view  and  method  is  most  obvious  when  we  come  to  deal 
with  Israel  in  Exile.  It  was  a  time  of  political  revolu- 
tion, or  rather  devolution.  What  sort  of  government  was 
that  which  was  then  forfeited?  How  much  of  the  past 
had  it  retained?  What  elements  passed  over  perma- 
nently into  the  new  society?  How  was  this  society  out- 
wardly moulded  under  the  foreign  regime?  It  was  a  time 
of  social  change.  How  were  the  exiles  distributed  in 
Babylonia?  How  were  they  grouped  together?  What 
were  their  employments?  How  did  Babylonian  ways  and 
business  methods  affect  them?  It  was  a  time  of  moral 
testing  and  sifting.  How  did  they  abide  the  trial  ? 
What  moral  characteristics  did  they  bring  with  them? 
Were  these  improved  in  exile,  or  did  they  deteriorate? 
How  were  they  influenced  by  what  they  did  and  saAv  and 
heard  in  Babylonia?  It  was  a  time  of  intellectual  stimu- 
lus. What  writings  did  they  bring  with  them  into  exile? 
What  region  of  their  life  in  Palestine  did  it  especially 
touch  or  move?  What  were  the  new  literary  produc- 
tions? How  were  these  evoked  and  moulded?  What 
were  the  gains  from  contact  with  the  cultured  and  book- 
learned  Babylonians?  How  did  these  fit  in  with  their 
previous  knowledge  and  conceptions?  It  was  a  time  of 
religious  trial  and  revolution.  What  religions  views  and 
beliefs  did  they  bring  with  them  into  captivity?  How- 
were  these  rooted  in  their  life  and  experience  in  the  old 
land?  What  new  light  came  to  them  through  their  resi- 
dence among  the  kindred  and  }ret  alien  Babylonians? 
How  were  their  preconceptions  altered  through  the  recent 
facts  of  their  own  history  and  their  wider  knowledge  of 
the  world?  How  were  they  led  to  regard  Jehovah  in  the 
light  of  his  dealings  with  them  and  of  the  fates  of  the 
nations?  It  was  a  time  of  change  in  worship.  The  old 
sacred    places    were    theirs    no    more.      The    temple,    the 


316  ISRAEL   REMADE    BY   THE   EXILE  Book  X 

official  priesthood,  the  feasts,  were  perforce  discarded. 
How  had  they  regarded  these  sacra  when  in  Palestine? 
What  if  anything  now  took  their  place? 

§1266.  Israel  was  remade  by  the  Exile:  this  is  a 
patent  fact  of  history.  It  did  not  simply  outgrow  and 
shuffle  off  its  past:  it  was  torn  away  from  it.  It  was 
seized  and  hurled  far  away  over  the  desert.  It  was 
wrenched  away  from  its  land,  its  home,  its  hearth,  its 
vine  and  rig  tree,  its  market-place,  its  burying-ground, 
and  its  sanctuary.  It  had  to  begin  life  over  again. 
To  understand  the  new  life  we  must  once  more  take 
account  of  elementary  social,  political,  and  moral  forces. 
The  questions  of  transference  and  a  new  environment 
are  now  of  primary  importance;  and  their  significance  is 
enhanced  when  we  consider  not  merely  the  strangeness 
of  Babylonia,  but  its  culture,  its  wealth,  its  antiquity,  its 
organization,  its  easy  supremacy  over  mankind  in  what 
appealed  to  sense  or  reason  or  imagination;  and  all  this 
in  contrast  with  the  forlornness  and  helplessness  of  the 
bewildered  captives. 

§  1*267.  At  the  same  time,  no  period  of  the  history  of 
Israel  serves  better  than  the  Exile  as  a  standpoint  for 
review  and  perspective.  Although  but  few  well-ascer- 
tained events  excite  the  attention,  the  situation  and  the 
historical  conditions  are  exceptionally  clear  and  distinct. 
Israel's  world  is  being  shaped  anew.  The  sun  and  moon 
and  stars  are  out  of  the  sky,  but  in  the  primordial  light 
that  comes  from  the  play  of  cosmic  forces  the  old  familiar 
objects  are  seen  in  clear  relief,  in  separate,  unshaded  dis- 
tinctness. Here  we  have  Israel  reduced  to  its  essential 
elements.  It  is  now  a  people  more  manageable,  more 
plastic,  more  intelligible  than  in  the  past.  There  is  a 
haziness  about  the  outlines  in  all  the  images  that  we  form 
of  the  political  and  religious  movements  of  the  ages  pre- 
ceding the  Exile.  This  is  partly  due  to  the  gaps  in  the 
record,  but  partly  also  to  the  intrinsic  obscurity  of  the 
mixed  social  conditions  and  politics  of  the  country  and 


Cn.  XI,  §  1267      ADDED   LIGHT   AND   CLEARNESS  317 

the  people.  In  both  directions  the  Exile  brings  light  and 
clearness.  Henceforth  for  centuries  the  political  rela- 
tions of  the  Hebrews  are  simple  and  constant.  They  til 
themselves,  directly  or  indirectly,  into  the  service  of  the 
empires  that  control  the  new  order  of  the  world;  and 
there  they  stay.  The  writings,  also,  that  illustrate  the 
new  era  are  plainer  and  more  practical.  The  new  proph- 
ecy, even  when  grandiose  and  expansive,  is  more  objec- 
tive, being  always  relevant  to  known  contemporary  events, 
while  the  earlier  discourses  often  produce  general  rather 
than  definite  impressions.  But  what  is  of  most  conse- 
quence is  the  fact  that  in  the  Exile  the  whole  intellectual 
and  spiritual  heritage  of  Israel  —  its  beliefs,  it  usages,  and 
its  laws  — are  brought  to  the  test  of  new  conditions,  and 
revised  and  readapted  to  the  needs  of  a  new  community. 
And  the  further  acquisitions  made  in  the  time  and  place 
mark  of  themselves  a  new  epoch,  bearing  unmistakably 
the  stamp  of  Babylonia. 


CHAPTER   XII 

THE   DEPORTATIONS 

§  1268.  But  first  of  all  we  must  see  exactly  what  is 
meant  by  the  Babylonian  captivity.  As  already  indicated 
(§  12o4  and  note,  1250),  there  were  three  separate 
deportations.  The  total  of  forty-six  hundred,  supple- 
mented by  the  wives,  children,  and  slaves,  might  easily 
represent  twenty  thousand  souls,  and  of  these  the  first 
deportation  contributed  between  nine  and  ten  thousand. 
It  accordingly  equalled  the  other  two  combined.  Not 
only  was  it  the  largest  numerically,  but  with  it,  according 
to  the  express  statement  of  the  record  {-  K.  xxiv.  11), 
went  the  flower  of  the  city  and  nation.  Besides  Jehoi- 
achin  and  bis  circle  of  nobles  it  contained  such  men  as 
Ezekiel,  and  men  of  influence  like  the  prophets  who 
opposed  the  policy  of  himself  and  Jeremiah  (Jer.  xxix. 
21  ff.).  On  the  other  hand,  most  of  the  popular  leaders 
of  the  final  revolt  were  put  to  death  at  Riblah  (§  1235), 
and  the  others,  including  such  commanding  figures  as 
Jeremiah  and  Gedaliah,  did  not  goto  Babylonia  at  all. 

§  1269.  Certain  preliminary  inferences  may  be  made 
from  these  facts.  First,  the  people  of  the  Exile,  in  the 
comprehensive  sense  of  the  term,  had  laid  in  Babylonia 
the  foundations  of  their  social  and  civil  system  before  the 
fall  of  Jerusalem.  Second,  we  are  to  find  among  Ezekiel 
and  his  companions  the  men  who  determined  the  religious 
character  and  tendencies  of  the  first  half  of  the  Captivity. 
Third,  while  the  fall  of  Jerusalem  was  still  a  decisive 
factor  in  the  religious  and  political  life  of  the  Exile,  it 

318 


On.  XII.  §  1271  CLASSES  OF  EXILES  319 

was  so  mainly  because  of  its  importance  to  the  people 
already  in  exile,  who  comprised  nearly  all  of  Israel  that 
were  to  tell  upon  the  future. 

§  1270.  Let  us  look  into  the  proscription  and  banish- 
ment of  the  exiles  as  a  whole.  The  second  deportation 
differed  from  the  others  mainly  in  the  exceptional  sever- 
ity  shown  to  the  leaders  of  the  final  revolt.  During  the 
actual  journey  eastward  the  same  general  plan  was 
followed  in  all  three.  In  pursuance  of  the  system  so 
carefully  followed  out,  a  classification  of  the  prisoners 
was  made  at  the  very  beginning  (§  1232,  note).  The 
distinguished  rebels  were  kept  by  themselves  with  a 
special  guard.  Those  who  were  to  be  subjected  to 
punitive  servitude  Avere  also  marked  out.  How  many 
there  were  of  the  last-named  class  we  cannot  say  with 
certainty.  To  judge  from  the  silence  of  the  Hebrew 
records  and  the  evidence  that  the  Judaites  prospered  in 
Babylonia,  it  would  seem  probable  that  these  were  not 
very  numerous.  Those  who  were  free  of  blame  or  "sin  " 
among  the  captives,  and  who  were  not  to  be  subjected 
to  hardship,  also  formed  a  separate  division.  This  class 
would  include  those  who  chose  to  go  into  exile  either 
from  patriotic  motives  or  from  a  desire  not  to  be  sepa- 
rated from  their  families  or  friends.  While  the  lives 
and  services  of  all  the  population  of  revolted  countries 
and  cities  were  forfeit,  those  to  whom  clemency  was 
extended  became  merely  prisoners  of  the  state.  Thus 
the  choice  was  offered  to  Jeremiah  and  Baruch  to  go 
whither  they  would  (§  1242). 

§  1271.  Representations  are  found  on  Assyrian  bas- 
reliefs  of  men,  women,  and  children  being  driven  away 
from  conquered  cities,  marching  with  bowed  heads  and 
with  hands  fastened  behind  their  backs,  and  beaten  by 
staves  in  the  hands  of  their  guards.  Such  pictures,  like 
the  other  decorative  sculptures,  are  typical,  and  there- 
fore extreme.  The  march  on  foot,  the  fetters,  and  the 
drivei's,    were,  however,   facts   of   the   Assyrian    regime, 


320  TREATMENT   OE   CAPTIVES  Book  X 

ameliorated  doubtless  by  the  Chaldaeans,  and  yet  retained 
by  them  in  their  essential  features.  We  must  not,  how- 
ever, base  our  conceptions  of  the  march  of  the  Hebrew- 
exiles  upon  these  exaggerated  designs.  "We  must  keep  in 
mind  the  methods  of  the  Chaldsean  administration.  Its 
governing  principle  was  utilization  and  conservation.  In 
the  process  of  classification  just  alluded  to,  lists  of  the 
captives  were  made  out  by  the  "man  with  the  writer's 
inkhorn  at  his  side  "'  (Ez.  ix.  2  ff . ;  §  1191).  The  numera- 
tions and  descriptions  were  sent  to  the  capital,  to  be  there 
put  on  record,  and  the  officers  in  charge  of  the  expedition 
were  held  responsible  for  the  safe  arrival  of  the  conscripts. 
Excessive  cruelty  or  neglect  were  therefore  precluded  by 
the  mere  official  routine  of  an  advanced  civilization.  Nor 
are  we  to  assume  that  the  whole  of  the  exiles  of  each 
deportation  formed  one  great  band  or  caravan  by  them- 
selves. Their  arrangement  and  distribution  would  be 
determined  by  convenience  —  by  the  availability  of  troops 
for  a  military  guard,  by  the  facilities  for  transportation, 
by  the  season  of  the  year,  by  the  eharacter  of  the  several 
classes  of  the  travellers  as  above  defined,  to  whom  differ- 
ent sorts  of  treatment  would  be  given  according  to  their 
rank,  their  merit,  or  demerit,  and  their  ultimate  destina- 
tion or  condition  of  servitude.  In  fine,  we  can  only  get 
a  clear  conception  of  the  character  of  these  deportations  as 
a  whole  if  we  remember  that  this  form  of  banishment  was 
less  a  personal  than  a  national  penalty,  consisting  in  the 
loss  of  the  home-land  by  a  transfer  of  residence. 


CHAPTER   XIII 

THE   HEBREW   SETTLEMENT    IX   BABYLONIA 

§  1272.  But  what  of  the  exiles  after  their  arrival  in 
Babylonia?  And,  first  of  all,  in  what  places  exactly  were 
they  settled?  Upon  this  point  we  have  some  definite  in- 
formation with  regard  to  a  large  portion  of  the  greatest, 
or  first  deportation.  The  allusions  of  Ezekiel  make  it 
clear  that  there  was  along  the  stream  called  Kebar  a  large 
colony  of  his  countrymen.  The  Kebar  was  an  important 
canal  of  central  Babylonia.  In  two  business  documents 
of  the  reign  of  Artaxerxes  I  (464-424  B.C.)  mention  is 
made  of  the  stream  Kabar,  which,  as  Hilprecht  says,1 
was  a  large  navigable  canal  near  the  city  of  Nippur. 
Though  its  exact  location  has  not  }-et  been  fixed,  we  may 
assume  as  almost  certain  that  it  was  a  branch  of  the  larger 
canal,  the  Shatt-en-Nil  (§  94).  Inasmuch  as  the  Hebrew 
colonists  could  not  well  have  been  placed  in  a  thickly 
settled  district,  it  is  probable  that  the  Kebar  lay  to  the 
east  of  the  great  canal. 

§  1273.  Where  the  other  bands  or  groups  of  exiles 
were  settled  it  is,  at  least  for  the  present,  vain  to  conjec- 
ture, except  that  some,  besides  the  royal  captives  and 
their  households,  were  doubtless  taken  to  the  city  of 
Babylon.  The  Great  King,  while  eager  for  the  develop- 
ment of  the  country  as  a  whole,  was  specially  concerned 
about  his  capital  (§  1055  ff.)  ;  and  for  labour  upon  his  vast 
public  and  private  works  a  contingent  would   be  taken 

1  PCT.  IX,  p.  28.    The  word  itself  significantly  means  "  large." 
t  321 


322  DISTRIBUTION   OF   EXILES  Book  X 

from  every  considerable  importation  of  prisoners  of  war. 
That  man)-  were  placed  in  other  great  cities  of  the  empire 
is  not  probable.  Naturally,  many  of  the  Hebrews  made 
their  way  ultimately  to  one  centre  of  industry  or  another, 
above  all,  to  Babylon.  But  at  first  their  residences  would 
be  determined  by  the  policy  of  the  king;  and  that  was  not 
favourable  to  the  upbuilding  of  any  possible  rival  to  his 
beloved  city.  From  the  conditions  of  half  a  century 
later  it  would  seem  that  the  exiles  came  at  length 
to  be  pretty  widely  distributed.  Among  the  lists  of 
those  returning  from  the  Exile  occurs  a  group  of  names 
of  places1  from  which  certain  persons,  652  in  number, 
came  to  join  the  main  body  of  pilgrims :  Tel-melach,  Tel- 
harsha,  Cherub,  Addan,  and  Immer  (Ezra.  ii.  59  f. ;  Neh. 
vii.  61  f.).  It  is  said  of  these  people  that  they  could 
not  prove  their  genealogical  connection  with  Israel,  from 
which  we  infer  that  during  these  two  generations  they 
were  separated  from  their  brethren.2  At  any  rate,  the 
centralization  of  the  exiles  would  be  discouraged  by  the 
imperial  authorities  in  order  to  preclude  the  possibility 
of  a  concerted  uprising.  We  conclude,  then,  that  in  the 
gradual  allocation  several  small  groups  of  the  exiles  were 
formed  in  separate  districts  (cf.  §  1306). 

1  The  names  are  interesting  and  some  of  them  may  be  explained, 
though  so  far  none  of  them  is  certainly  found  in  the  Inscriptions.  Hil- 
precht  (PC'T.  IX.  47)  thinks  Addon  was  originally  the  name  of  a  person 
which  is  of  frequent  occurrence  in  the  time  of  Artaxerxes  I,  and  regards 
the  word  as  Hebrew  (ib.  p.  27).  It  is  not  clear,  however,  why  it  should 
not  be  native  Babylonian,  whether  as  place  or  person.  Cherub  is  proba- 
bly Babylonian,  though  familiar  to  us  as  a  Bible  word,  not  a  place-name. 
Tel-melach  may  be  "Mound  of  salt,*'  if  the  word  is  Hebrew;  if  Baby- 
lonian, it  would  be  correctly  Tel-malah,  and  means  "Mound  of  the 
boatmen."  Tel-harsha  is  probably  Babylonian,  though  the  meaning  is 
uncertain.  The  "tels"  are  interesting  as  showing  conditions  similar  to 
those  of  Tel-Abub  (§  1107).  Place-names,  indubitably  Hebrew,  are  not 
found  as  yet  in  Babylonia,  Kasiphia  (Ezra  viii.  17)  is  an  additional  set- 
tlement, named  over  a  century  later,  and  Ahava  (Ezra  viii.  17,  21,  31), 
also  on  a  canal,  seems  to  have  been  more  than  a  mere  gathering-place. 

-  We  may  note  that  nevertheless  they  grew  to  be  quite  numerous,  and, 
still  bearing  the  Hebrew  name,  were  not  absorbed  by  other  populations. 


Ch.  XIII,  §  1275     CONDITIONS   OF  .EMPLOYMENT  323 

§  1274.  We  are  on  somewhat  surer  ground  when  we 
come  to  deal  with  the  employments  of  the  captives  and 
their  companions.  The  determining  factors  were  (1)  the 
antecedent  occupations  of  the  Hebrews;  (2)  the  indus- 
trial requirements  of  the  country;  (3)  the  demands  of  the 
royal  policy  and  projected  measures  of  internal  adminis- 
tration ;  (4)  the  ruling  social  and  legal  conditions  of  the 
employment  of  labour.  Each  of  these  matters  should 
have  some  brief  consideration,  because  it  is  only  when 
we  can  follow  a  people  through  their  daily  occupations 
that  we  can  trace  intelligently  their  history  as  a  com- 
munity. 

§  1275.  Taking  the  exiles  of  the  three  deportations  as 
a  whole,  the  majority  of  them  were  better  fitted  for  agri- 
cultural employments  in  Babylonia  than  for  any  other 
occupation.  They  represented  fairly  well  the  population 
of  Judah,  who  could  not  immediately  adapt  themselves 
to  the  requirements  of  art  and  manufacture  in  a  highly 
civilized  community.  Outside  the  cities  most  of  the 
inhabitants  were  shepherds,1  independent  or  tenant 
farmers,  farm  labourers,  vine  dressers,  and  olive  growers. 
Within  the  large  towns  and  in  the  capital  itself  were  many 
employed  in  the  service  of  the  landed  proprietors  on  their 
country  estates.  On  the  other  hand,  the  members  of  the 
guilds  of  craftsmen,  such  as  the  "carvers  and  joiners"2 

1  The  persistency  of  the  shepherd  class,  even  in  a  semi-nomadic  form, 
is  illustrated  by  the  case  of  the  Kechabites.  This  class  is  of  interest  here, 
because  some,  at  least,  of  its  members  were  carried  to  Babylonia  among 
the  people  of  Jerusalem,  where  they  had  taken  refuge  during  the  first 
blockade  (§  1141).  That  they  survived  the  exile,  in  fulfilment  of  the 
prediction  of  Jeremiah  (ch.  xxxv.  19),  we  learn  from  1  Chr.  ii.  55  and 
iv.  12  (Sept.).     Cf.  Meyer,  Entstehung  des  Judenthums,  ]>.  117. 

-  EV.,  "craftsmen  and  smiths."  The  former  word  (tshn),  however, 
denotes  those  who  worked  with  cutting  instruments;  hence  it  is  used 
mine  explicitly  of  workers  in  wood,  stone,  bronze  or  copper,  iron,  gold, 
and  silver.  The  second  word  (i.)D-)  cannot  mean  simply  •■smith."  nor 
"locksmith,"  as  it  is  often  l'endcred.  Probably  the  former  refers  to  the 
cutting  and  shaping  of  the  material,  the  latter  to  the  construction  of  the 
manufactured  article  (literally,  "one  who  closes  up"). 


324  TRADES   AND    PROFESSIONS  Book  X 

(2  K.  xxiv.  14,  16;  Jer.  xxiv.  1;  xxix.  2),  weavers, 
potters,  dyers,  tanners,  and  house-builders,  were  not  in 
considerable. 

§  1276.  What  the  Hebrews  in  Babylonia  ultimately 
became  depended  mainly  upon  themselves.  Their  cir- 
cumstances at  the  outset  depended  upon  the  imperial 
policy  and  the  needs  of  the  country.  Looking  at  the 
latter  first,  we  observe  that  there  were  certain  permanent 
demands  for  labour  which  were  never  abated  during  times 
of  national  prosperity  and  vigour.  The  weal  of  Baby- 
lonia was  bound  up  with  the  water  supply  and  its  utili- 
zation. Works  of  canalization  and  irrigation  could  be 
multiplied  indefinitely;  and  whenever  established  they 
recpuired  unremitting  and  intelligent  oversight.  The  cul- 
tivation of  the  soil  and  the  various  processes  of  agricul- 
ture, thus  made  easier  and  more  general,  called  for  a  large 
force  of  workers.  Partly  independent  of  agriculture  was 
the  care  of  cattle  by  the  shepherd  class.  To  these  must  be 
added  the  various  avocations  that  furnished  the  appli- 
ances of  rural  toil  and  increased  its  efficiency  and  comfort. 
Hence,  nourished  by  this  fundamental  industry,  the  arts 
of  life  which  in  Palestine  (§  484)  had  been  practised 
only  as  far  as  was  possible  to  a  small  and  secluded 
community,  were  in  Babylonia  developed  to  a  degree  of 
perfection  elsewhere  unknown  in  Western  Asia.  Such 
were  the  arts  of  weaving,  tanning,  metal-making,  brick- 
making,  and  the  building  and  furnishing  of  dwellings. 
Within  the  realm  of  leisure  and  luxury  was  the  making 
of  ornaments,  of  statues  and  statuettes,  of  decorated 
pottery,  instruments  of  music,  and  other  pursuits  that 
served  the  arts  of  pleasure.  Highest  of  all  was  the 
art  of  the  writer,  with  the  stylus,  the  graving  tool,  or 
the  reed.  Again,  upon  the  same  agricultural  basis  was 
erected  an  extensive  sj'stem  of  trade  and  commerce,  as 
active  as  it  was  various,  and  regulated  by  every  safeguard 
and  restraint  that  the  experience  of  the  trader  or  the  wit 
of  the  lawyer  or  clerk  could  devise  (§  1064). 


Ch.  XI11,  §  1278     PUBLIC    WORKS   AND    LABOURERS  325 

§  1277.  These  were  what  we  may  call  permanent 
industries  and  means  of  employment.  But  Israel  came 
to  Babylonia  at  a  time  of  exceptional  opportunity. 
Nebuchadrezzar,  the  great  restorer  of  Babylonia,  treated 
his  prisoners  of  war  as  vassals  and  wards  rather  than  as 
lifelong  criminals.  His  administration,  moreover,  was 
hospitable  towards  foreigners,  since  the  improvement  and 
development  of  his  country  made  their  services  desirable. 
His  domestic  statesmanship  had  a  twofold  aim.  On  the 
one  hand,  the  wealth  and  power  of  Babylonia,  as  a  whole, 
were  to  be  enhanced  by  works  of  internal  improvement, 
especially  by  extending  the  area  of  productive  soil  and 
increasing  its  annual  yield.  On  the  other  hand,  the  work 
of  putting  and  keeping  in  order  the  irrigation  works  and 
other  great  enterprises  demanded  a  strong  administrative 
and  financial  centre,  so  that  the  capital  was  necessarily 
aggrandized  at  the  expense  of  other  important  towns  as 
local  rivals.  It  was  mainly  in  carrying  out  the  former 
of  these  aims  that  the  Hebrews  played  their  part.  If 
they  had  come  to  Babylonia  and  had  spent  their  years 
of  tutelage  under  a  cruel  or  a  declining  regime,  their 
life,  as  a  people,  might  have  been  crushed  out  by  tyranny 
or  exhausted  by  hopeless  and  impotent  effort. 

§  1278.  Most  important  of  all  the  elements  that  made 
up  their  new  environment  were  the  conditions  under 
which  they  made  their  living  and  did  their  work.  The 
first  question  that  presses  upon  us  is  that  of  the  tenure 
and  status  of  slaves  in  Babylonia,  since  we  must  take  for 
granted  that  most  of  the  Hebrews  wrere  assigned  at  first 
to  bond-service  (§  1281).  What  has  been  said  (§  539  ff.) 
of  Hebrew  slavery  may  serve  as  a  general  guide,  for  in 
civilized  ancient  society  usage  and  legislation  prescribed 
nearly  the  same  rules  everywhere  for  the  treatment  of 
slaves.  The  main  difference  between  ancient  and  modern 
slavery  does  not  concern  the  treatment  of  slaves  so  much 
as  their  social  position  and  prospects.  Among  the  Baby- 
lonians, as  wrell  as  among  the  Egyptians  and  Hebrews, 


326  CLASSES    OF    SLAVES  Book  X 

slaves,  especially  prisoners  of  war  and  victims  of  border 
raids,  might  be  treated  with  the  utmost  cruelty.  Of  this 
we  have  abundant  evidence  from  the  sculptured  represen- 
tations of  labourers  urged  on  in  their  tasks  under  the  lash 
of  taskmasters.1  On  the  other  hand,  slaves  were  often,  in 
everything  save  civic  privileges,  the  equals  of  freemen. 
Many  of  them  were  far  better  off  as  slaves  than  they  could 
have  been  as  their  own  masters;  and  this  good  fortune 
apparently  befell  the  chief  part  of  the  Hebrew  exiles. 

§  1279.  The  privileges  and  duties  of  the  servile  class 
in  Babylonia  may  be  set  forth  by  facts  gathered  from  the 
monuments.  Slaves  were  of  several  classes.  First,  there 
were  the  slaves  of  the  state.  These  were  mostly  prisoners 
of  war,  who  had  been  taken  in  battle  or  at  the  capture  of  a 
fortress  or  the  surrender  of  a  city.  Originally,  in  days  of 
savagery,  such  captives  formed  the  bulk  of  the  servile 
population  (§  542,  note).  Their  treatment  wras,  upon  the 
whole,  ameliorated  by  advancing  civilization;  but  even 
under  the  least  rigorous  administration  barbarous  severity 
was  shown  to  actual  instigators  or  leaders  of  strife  or 
rebellion.  In  the  later  Assyrian  and  Chaldaean  times  a 
careful  classification  of  prisoners  was  made,  according  to 
which  harsher  or  milder  measures  were  adopted  toward 
them  (§  1270).  They  did  not  all  necessarily  remain  the 
property  of  the  crown,  for  those  of  them  to  whom  special 
leniency  was  to  be  shown  might  at  any  time  be  handed 
over  to  corporations  or  private  employers  of  labour.      The 

1  As  in  the  parallel  instance  referred  to  above  (§  1271),  we  must  beware 
of  taking  this  as  typical  of  the  general  system.  Prisoners  of  war  and 
state  criminals  usually  furnished  the  labourers  employed  in  great  public 
works,  where  the  rudest  and  heaviest  mechanical  force  was  required. 
Thus  the  Hebrew  slaves  in  Egypt  had  been  enemies  of  the  state.  It  is 
colossal  works  of  this  character  that  are  represented  in  the  sculptures, 
which  are  in  fact  an  illustration  throughout  of  the  prowess  and  author- 
ity of  the  monarch.  The  fact  that  a  driver  is  placed  over  very  small 
groups  of  workmen  shows  that  such  slave  labour  was  of  value  only  as  it 
was  forced,  differing  thus  from  ordinary  servitude,  as  set  forth  in  the 
following  paragraphs. 


Oh.  XIII,  §  1279     TEMPLE   AND   PRIVATE    SLAVES  327 

second  class  were  the  temple  slaves.  Their  number  and 
importance  naturally  depended  upon  the  fortune  of  the 
temples  themselves,  and  this  was  fluctuating  and  uncer- 
tain. In  Babylonia,  however,  there  never  was  a  time 
when  the  temples  were  not  numerous  and  enterprising; 
and  as  their  business  included  the  whole  range  of  handi- 
work, trade,  manufacture,  and  mercantile  employment 
known  to  the  age  and  country,  the  central  government 
itself  did  not  make  a  more  various  and  extensive  use  of 
slave  labour  than  did  these  seats  of  the  gods.  At  the 
present  epoch,  however,  on  account  of  the  favour  shown  to 
Babylon  and  Borsippa  (§  1060  ff.)  the  provincial  temples 
were  declining  in  importance,  and  business  under  sacred 
auspices  was  being  concentrated  in  the  precincts  of  the 
fortunate  shrines.  Again,  there  were  the  slaves  of  private 
citizens,  who  were  of  various  classes  and  orders — the 
manufacturers,  merchants,  and  landed  proprietors  taking 
a  leading  place  as  the  owners.  Slaves  were  normally 
acquired  by  purchase ;  but  both  temples  and  individual 
citizens  might  come  into  their  possession  by  endowment 
from  the  state,  in  consideration  of  services  rendered  or 
of  an  ancient  claim.  During  the  frequent  changes  of 
dynasty  in  the  later  Babylonian  times,  each  successive 
administration  sought  to  propitiate  the  powerful  priest- 
hood by  substantial  gifts,  of  which  confiscated  lands  and 
their  occupants  came  readiest  to  hand;  and  to  the  families 
of  loyal  supporters  similar  benefactions  were  made.  The 
possession  of  slaves,  however,  was  far  from  being  a 
monopoly  of  the  wealthier  classes,  and,  in  the  course  of 
business  and  changes  of  fortune,  most  people  who  had  a 
modicum  of  money  or  land  had  also  their  servile  retainers. 
Almost  entitled  to  be  classed  by  themselves  were  the 
slaves  of  slaves1  (cf.  §  1280). 

1  See  Peiser,  "  Skizze  der  babylonischen  Gesellschaft,"  in  Mitthvihingen 
der  vorderasiatischen  Gesellschaft,  1896,  —  an  essay  to  whicb  I  am  bere 
greatly  indebted.  Peiser  makes  a  special  class  also  of  tbe  glebce 
adscrijiti,   those  assigned   or  attached  to  a  particular  domain,   who,   at 


328  OPPORTUNITIES   OF   SLAVES  Book  X 

§  1280.  For  our  present  purpose  it  is  important  to 
notice  that  in  Babylonia  slaves  generally,  even  those  who 
were  originally  state  prisoners,  had  the  chance  of  rising 
through  the  several  grades  of  servitude,  and  bettering 
their  condition  by  sale,  by  gift,  by  endowment,  by  legac}-; 
that  they  could  become  free  by  their  own  purchase,  or  by 
redemption  through  another,  or  by  the  generosity  or  the 
necessities  of  their  masters ;  that  they  could  be  adopted 
into  the  family  of  an  owner  and  eventually  succeed  to  the 
possession  of  great  estates ;  that  by  a  very  common  form 
of  business  contract  they  were,  when  hired  out  by  their 
masters,  entitled  not  only  to  compensation  during  siek- 
ness  or  for  injuries,  but  also  to  a  remuneration  for  their 
labour,  so  that  it  was  possible  for  them  to  accumulate  a 
small  capital  and  acquire  slaves  of  their  own ;  moreover, 
that  they  could  become  skilled  craftsmen  by  a  course  of 
legal  apprenticeship.  These  essential  differences  from 
modern  and  western  slavery  set  in  relief  a  fact  of  vital 
significance  in  the  history  of  the  Exile,  that  social  con- 
ditions were  not  unfavourable  to  the  enfranchisement  and 
advancement  of  the  Hebrew  captives.  It  will  also  be 
observed  that  while  in  the  main  the  system  of  servitude 
prevalent  in  Babylonia  was  similar  to  that  with  which  they 
had  been  familiar  in  Palestine,  it  was  at  the  same  time 
better  regulated  by  law  and  custom.  Moreover,  the  posi- 
tion of  freedmen  was  more  secure  under  the  more  stable 
legal  and  business  conditions  of  the  Chaldasan  empire. 
In  general  we  may  conclude  that  for  the  majority  of  the 
exiles,  even  for  many  of  those  who  in  the  home-land  had 
servants  of  their  own,  slavery  was,  for  the  first  few  years, 
better  than  freedom,  even  apart  from  the  fact  that  in  the 
servile  state  they  were  provided  for  in  sickness,  want,  and 

stated  times,  had  to  perform  certain  services  for  their  owners,  some- 
what in  the  fashion  of  the  villeins  of  mediaeval  Europe  (cf.  Hallam's 
Middle  Ages,  New  York,  1880,  I,  106  f.).  They  seem  to  have  been 
mostly  subject  to  the  temples.  The  subject  is  obscure,  and  it  can  hardly 
be  made  out  that  serfdom  on  a  large  scale  prevailed  in  Babylonia. 


Ch.  XIII,  §  1282     FREEDOM   OF   ACTION   POSSIBLE  329 

old  age  —  a  matter  of  consequence  to  many  who  had  to 
begin  anew  the  struggle  of  life  in  a  foreign  land  with 
nothing  which  they  could  call  their  own. 

§  1281.  The  supposition  (§  1278)  that  most  of  the 
exiles  were  slaves  in  Babylonia,  whether  they  had  been 
free  in  their  own  land  or  not,  may  seem  to  be  inconsistent 
with  the  glimpses  of  their  life  in  that  country  which  Ave 
gain  from  the  book  of  Ezekiel,  and  with  the  exhortation 
addressed  to  them  by  Jeremiah  (ch.  xxix.  4  ff.)  to  make 
homes  for  themselves  and  to  take  part  in  the  life  and  work 
of  the  country  (§  1168).  But  such  freedom  of  movement 
and  action  as  is  thus  implied  was  quite  possible  to 
Babylonian  slaves,  the  only  restriction  being  that  the 
labour  of  their  hands  was  at  the  disposal  of  others,  and 
that  they  were  not  endowed  with  civil  rights.  We  cannot 
insist  on  this  point  too  strongly  for  the  correct  conception 
of  Hebrew  life  at  the  beginning  of  the  Exile.  At  the 
same  time  it  is  quite  possible  that  several  people  of  means 
who  had  not  favoured  the  rebellion,  besides  those  who 
were  invited  or  permitted  to  accompany  their  banished 
brethren,  were  granted  lands  for  their  support,  and  became 
house-masters  and  men  of  property  at  the  very  threshold 
of  their  "captivity."  But  the  number  cannot  have  been 
great  even  in  the  chief  agricultural  settlement.  Political 
reasons  alone  would  impose  a  restriction,  and  there  was, 
besides,  the  broad,  economic  fact  that  in  all  departments 
of  industry  most  of  the  actual  work  was  done  by  slaves. 

§  1282.  We  may  resume  and  sum  up  as  follows :  The 
exiles  may  from  the  point  of  view  of  their  relation  to  the 
state  and  to  society  be  divided  into  four  classes.  There 
wen;  first  those  who  were  political  prisoners,  such  as  the 
royal  captives  and  their  following  of  seditious  nobles. 
They  were  kept  in  prison  on  a  life  sentence.  Yet  their 
confinement  was  not  necessarily  perpetual.  Nor  did  the 
imprisonment  in  all  cases  involve  the  seclusion  and  priva- 
tions of  a  dungeon  (§  1147).  Extreme  cruelties  in  Ori- 
ental imprisonment  speedily  end  the  life  of  the  prisoner. 


330  AGRICULTURE   PARAMOUNT  Book  X 

But  many  descendants  of  royalty  and  of  noble  families  are 
found  to  have  survived  the  Exile.  Secondly,  there  were 
those  who  having  property  of  their  own,  and  not  having 
been  attainted  as  rebels,  were  permitted  or  encouraged  to 
join  the  ranks  of  the  deported  (§  1270).  These  would 
probably  be  allowed  to  purchase  estates  for  themselves  and 
become  guests  of  the  country  (cf.  §  549)  without  acquiring 
civil  rights.  Thirdly,  there  were  the  rank  and  file  of 
active  rebels.  They  were  doubtless  employed,  at  least  at 
the  beginning,  as  state  labourers  at  the  most  servile  tasks 
under  rigorous  compulsion.  Finally,  there  were  the  body 
of  the  deported  people  not  specially  obnoxious.  These 
were  set  to  work  as  slaves,  in  various  occupations. 

§  1283.  The  paramount  importance  of  agriculture 
(§  1276)  is  abundantly  shown  in  surviving  business 
documents.  It  is  also  clearly  illustrated  by  the  inci- 
dental testimony  of  the  monuments,  in  the  sculptured 
sketches  of  irrigating  machines,  in  school-book  exercises 
on  the  task  and  operations  of  husbandry,  and  in  temple 
lists  of  vegetable  productions  due  as  contributions  and 
classified  according  to  the  implements  used  in  tilling  the 
producing  soil.  All  inquiry  into  the  industrial,  com- 
mercial, and  social  features  of  Babylonian  life  must 
begin  with  a  study  of  its  agriculture  and  the  antecedent 
conditions  of  climate,  soil,  and  Avater  supply.  Moreover, 
the  principal  colony  of  the  exiles  was  planted  in  a  region 
which  demanded  this  employment  and  no  other.  To  learn 
under  what  conditions  they  plied  their  calling  will  enable 
us  not  merely  to  follow  aright  their  outward  fortunes,  but 
to  understand  how  their  character  was  moulded  in  their 
new  national  training  school. 

§  1281.  We  must  picture  to  ourselves  a  vast  level  region, 
whose  surface  is  varied  only  by  the  mounds  of  cities  or  vil- 
lages ruined  or  inhabited,  or  by  occasional  fortresses  or  mili- 
tary stations,  and  by  the  beds  of  watercourses.  It  was  the 
very  heart  of  Babylonia  geographically  that  the  chief 
colony  occupied,  but  the  most  populous  area  was  to  the. 


Cn.  XIII.  §  1285       NIPPUR    AND   ITS   TEMPLE  331 


west  and  north  where  hi}'  Babylon  and  its  suburbs,  and 
cities  more  ancient  still.  Nippur,  the  great  old  city  in  the 
neighbourhood,  was  once  the  central  resort  of  the  Baby- 
lonian Semites.  Recent  investigations  upon  its  site  have 
revealed  the  turning-points  in  its  history.  Like  the  rest 
of  the  most  ancient  cities  of  the  lower  Euphrates  region, 
and  indeed  like  ancient  cities  generally,  its  importance  de- 
pended upon  the  supremacy  of  its  leading  temple.  Nippur 
was  the  seat  of  the  most  ancient  worship  of  Bel.  The 
predominance  of  a  rival  temple  of  Bel  would  mean  the 
decline  of  Nippur,  and  perhaps  its  forcible  demolition. 

§  1285.  What  prejudiced  Nippur  most  seriously  was  the 
rise  and  prosperity  of  Babylon.  The  great  Chammurabi 
(§  117),  who  aimed  to  make  Babylon  the  centre  of  the 
revived  and  extended  native  monarchy,  united  the  worship 
of  his  local  deity  Merodach  with  that  of  the  more  ancient 
and  widely  revered  Bel.1  The  consequences  to  Nippur 
and  its  prestige  and  prosperity  were  disastrous.  It  is  not 
certain  but  that  violence  was  used  to  make  more  complete 
the  degradation  of  the  venerable  cult  of  Bel.  According 
to  a  recent  explorer  of  its  site  "  its  temple  was  sacked,  its 
statuary  and  rich  votive  gifts  wantonly  destroyed."  2  The 
same  policy  of  neglect  and  disfavour  was  continued  for  sev- 


1  The  results  of  this  combination  of  the  titles  and  attributes  of  Bel  and 
Marduk  are  well  shown  by  Jastrow,  RBA.  p.  117  f.  The  appreciation  of 
Marduk  leads  to  his  appropriation  of  the  role  and  his  assumption  of  the 
great  name  of  Bel,  while  "  Marduk-Bel  and  Marduk  are  blended  into  one 
personage,  Marduk  becoming  known  as  Bel-Marduk,  and,  finally,  the  first 
part  of  the  compound  sinking  to  the  level  of  a  mere  adjective,  the  god  is 
addressed  as  '  lord  Marduk.'  "  One  of  the  monumental  indications  of  this 
syncretism  is  found  in  the  designations  of  the  outer  and  inner  walls  of 
Babylon  (§  1058).  Singularly  enough,  the  outer  and  inner  walls  of  Nip- 
pur were  called  respectively  Nemitti-Marduk  and  Tmgur-Marduk  (II  R. 
50.  28,  20  a  and  /;).  Dr.  Peters  simply  refers  to  the  outer  wall  as  "  Nimitti- 
Bel"  (X>i>j<iir,  II,  212,  372). 

2  Peters,  in  Nippur,  II,  257.  It  is  just  possible  that,  according  to 
Hilprecht's  supposition  (PCT.  I.  ii.  33),  this  desecration  was  the  work  of 
the  invading  Elamites  shortly  before  (cf.  §  10(5  ff.).  At  any  rate,  it  is  clear 
that  Chammurabi  did  nothing  to  repair  the  ruin  wrought  in  the  temple. 


302  NIPPUR   DEPRECIATED  Book  X 

eral  centuries.  The  kings  of  the  Kasshite  dynasty,  who  as 
foreigners  had  no  local  prejudices,  restored  the  ancient 
splendour  of  the  temple  of  Bel,  and  therewith  the  pros- 
perity of  the  city  and  district  returned. 

§  128G.  But  a  new  work  of  destruction  was  undertaken 
under  Nebuchadrezzar  I  (§  178),  and  the  temple  was  razed 
to  the  ground.  It  was  not  until  near  the  close  of  the  As- 
syrian supremacy  that  it  was  again  reinstated.  Esarhaddon 
recognized  no  rivalry  between  Babylon  and  Nippur,  and  his 
equanimity  towards  the  former  (§  748  f.  )  was  matched  by 
a  generous  interest  in  the  latter.  His  son  Asshurbanipal, 
with  more  leisure  and  a  more  active  Babjdonian  policy, 
continued  to  favour  Nippur,  with  the  hope  of  dividing  the 
religious  and  therefore  the  political  interest  of  Babylonia, 
which  caused  him  so  much  trouble  and  loss.  Large  monu- 
mental remains  of  these  patrons  of  Nippur  have  been  found 
by  the  latest  explorers.  They  have  also  discovered  proofs 
of  the  opposition  displayed  by  the  revived  Chaldaean 
dj-nasty  in  the  days  of  which  we  are  now  writing.  If  the 
conjecture  of  Peters  :  is  correct,  Nippur  was  destroyed  by 
the  great  Nebuchadrezzar  in  his  zeal  for  the  aggrandize- 
ment of  Bel-Merodach  in  the  capital  city  of  Babylon. 

§  1287.  The  demolition  of  a  temple  and  the  subversion 
of  its  worship  involved  loss  of  prestige  and  of  business, 
both  of  which  depended  mainly  upon  the  appreciation  of 
the  local  shrines.  Allusion  has  already  been  made  to  the 
business  functions  of  that  remarkable  institution,  a  great 
Babylonian  temple  (  §  740,  note).  We  can  partly  account 
for  them  if  we  remember  that  religion  was  the  centre  of 
Babylonian  life  generally.  In  practice  this  meant  that  the 
priests  and  other  ministers  of  the  dominant  cults  gained 
riches  for  themselves  and  their  shrines  through  the  sacrificial 
and  votive  offerings,  the  fees  for  divination,  the  gifts  of  chiefs 
and  princes.  It  meant,  however,  more  than  this.  In  most 
civilized  countries  the  professional    ministers    of   religion 

1  Nippur,  II,  262. 


Cn.  XIII,  §  1288     THE  PRIESTHOOD   IN   BUSINESS  333 

have  been  sooner  or  later  debarred  from  civil  functions  and 
from  civil  business  on  any  extensive  scale.  Even  when,  as 
in  ancient  Egypt,  circumstances  favoured  their  usurpation 
of  the  functions  of  state,1  their  authority  was  not  tolerated 
for  long.  Neither  in  Babylonia  nor  in  Assyria  do  we  read 
of  priests  indulging  in  state  intrigues,  though  in  the  revo- 
lutionary periods  of  Babylonian  history  their  powerful  sup- 
port was  sometimes  given  to  one  side  or  the  other,  so  that 
they  virtually  were  in  those  troublesome  times  a  political 
force.  Their  strength,  however,  always  lay  in  their  own 
essential  merit  and  efficiency.  And  this  accounts  for  what 
is  so  remarkable,  that,  though  usually  without  civic  ambi- 
tion, they  became  a  great  power  in  the  general  life  of  the 
country  and  the  people. 

§  1288.  Peculiar  to  these  priests  of  Babylonia  were  their 
culture  and  their  science,  so  that  their  prestige  was  not  a 
mere  illusion  based  on  the  credulity  of  the  superstitious 
masses.  They  had  the  power  which  special  knowledge 
always  gives.  They  were  the  teachers  and  educators  of 
the  people,  and  they  were  liberal  enough  to  profess  in 
their  schools  not  merely  the  mysteries  of  their  own  special 
calling,  but  all  the  learning  of  the  time.  This  was  the 
secret  of  their  unique  enterprise  and  success  as  business 
men.  They  were  able  to  acquire  and  maintain  great  estates, 
to  make  large  loans,  to  own  many  slaves  and  employ  many 
labourers,  to  cultivate  much  land,  to  establish  farms  and 
buildings  and  waterways,  and  rear  vast  flocks  of  sheep  and 
cattle.  Of  course  there  was  in  their  favour  the  popular 
notion  that  the  whole  land  was  the  property  of  the  god  or 
gods  of  whom  they  were  the  ministers.  Hence  they  or 
the  temples  received  tithes  and  substantial  offerings,  and 
hence  landed  property  in  their  parishes  easily  fell  into 
their  hands.  But  the  idea  of  the  divine  ownership  of 
the  soil  was  a  common  belief  among  ancient  peoples  ;  and 

1  In  the  twenty-first  dynasty  (§  207).  Significantly,  the  priestly  rulers 
are  not  recognized  as  legitimate  by  Manetho,  who  acknowledges  the 
rebellious  dynasty  of  Tanis. 


334  WHY   THE   COLONY   WAS   PLANTED  Book  X 

nowhere  else  was  the  priesthood  so  cultured,  so  sagacious, 
so  wealthy,  so  enterprising,  and  so  enduring. 

§  1289.  This  survey  may  help  us  to  understand  the  con- 
dition of  the  district  in  which  the  main  body  of  the  colonists 
found  themselves.  Notice  that,  on  the  one  hand,  Nippur 
was  after  the  earliest  times  never  a  great  political  centre, 
and  that,  on  the  other  hand,  its  excavated  records  show 
that  when  not  neglected  or  injured  by  an  unfriendly  king, 
its  business  interests  flourished  greatly.1  The  surrounding 
country  shared  inevitably  in  the  prosperity  or  the  decline 
of  Nippur.  What  is  the  inference  as  to  the  question  before 
us  ?  I  think  it  is  fair  to  assume  that  the  great  Nebuchad- 
rezzar, whose  policy  was  unfavourable  to  Nippur  and  its 
institutions,  but  who  had  at  heart  the  internal  development 
of  his  kingdom,  was  now  taking  charge  of  the  natural 
domain  of  that  city,  and  that  the  planting  of  this  colony 
of  Hebrews  in  the  neighbourhood  was  an  incident  of  his 
administration  of  the  district.  It  is  further  fair  to  assume 
that  this  community  of  Hebrews,  like  many  others,  was 
under  the  special  oversight  of  state  officials,  to  whom  the 
provincial  or  district  authorities  were  responsible  for  the 
good  conduct  and  efficiency  of  the  settlers. 

1  See,  for  example,  Nippur,  II,  114  f.,  where  mention  is  made  of  the 
business  records  of  the  great  temple  under  the  friendly  Kasshite  dynasty. 
The  mass  of  business  documents  found  by  Mr.  Haynes  (of  the  Pennsyl- 
vania expedition),  in  May,  180:],  of  which  the  first  instalment  is  published 
by  Hilprecht  and  Clay  (PCT.  vol.  IX),  belong  to  the  Persian  period,  but 
they  illustrate  the  historic  importance  of  Nippur  as  a  business  centre. 


CHAPTER   XIV 

CHIEF   EMPLOYMENTS    OF    THE   EXILES 

§  1290.  As  to  the  immediate  environment  and  occupa- 
tion of  this  principal  colony,  it  is  to  be  observed  that  the 
whole  of  Babylonia  is  normally,  and  in  a  sense  naturally, 
unproductive ;  that  according  to  the  season  of  the  year  or 
the  vicissitudes  of  the  River,  its  sandy  or  marshy  lands  are 
inundated  by  floods  or  parched  by  drought ;  that  some- 
times it  is  easy  and  best  to  travel  over  much  of  its  surface 
by  boats  or  rafts,  while  at  other  times  there  is  no  water  in 
the  Euphrates  itself  for  many  miles  of  its  course,  and 
very  little  in  any  of  its  countless  affluents ;  that  the  canal 
Kebar  lay  at  or  near  the  eastern  limit  of  a  network  of 
watercourses  included  between  the  two  great  streams,  the 
Euphrates  and  the  Shatt-en-Nil.  The  first  and  the  last  care 
of  the  typical  Babylonian  was  to  regulate,  conserve,  and 
utilize  the  water  of  the  River.  His  life  was  spent  in 
reclaiming  the  soil  and  extending  its  productive  area,  by 
drawing  off  the  superfluous  water  of  the  canals  and  reser- 
voirs, by  conveying  it  in  a  constant  stream  to  needy  regions, 
or  by  occasional  outlets  to  districts  dried  by  the  summer 
sun.  It  was  this  that  made  Babylonia  ;  but  more  —  it  was 
this  that  made  the  Babylonians.  The  difficulties  and  prob- 
lems of  the  case  were  greater  than  in  Egypt,  and  the  energy, 
watchfulness,  and  contrivance  that  were  needful  made  the 
people  of  the  Euphrates  greater  than  those  of  the  Nile. 
Naturally  there  was  need  of  state  or  corporate  aid. 

§  1291.  We  may  refer  here  to  the  description  of 
the    Babylonian  river   system  already    given    (§    71  ff.). 


336  BABYLONIAN   CANAL   SYSTEM  Book  X 

It  was  pointed  out  that,  as  this  lower  country  was  a 
perfect  plain,  being  little  more  than  a  deposit  of  the  two 
great  rivers,1  the  course  of  the  Euphrates  was  slow,  and 
at  the  flood  season  there  were  great  overflows  ;  that  at 
various  points  reservoirs  were  made  for  use  in  the  dry 
season  ;  and  that  besides,  an  immense  number  of  canals, 
large  and  small,  were  created  for  purposes  of  irrigation 
and  navigation.  We  shall  now  further  divide  the  canal- 
ization  of  the  country  east  of  the  Euphrates  into  three 
sections,  determined  mainly  by  the  water  supply  of  the 
Euphrates  and  Tigris,  and  the  varying  distance  from  one 
another  of  these  two  sources,  or  "  heads,"  as  they  are 
called  in  the  book  of  Genesis.  The  first  division  would 
embrace  a  district  extending  from  a  little  north  of  Bagh- 
dad to  the  neighbourhood  of  Babylon.  This  region  is 
marked  by  the  numerous  canals  running  from  the  Eu- 
phrates right  across  the  narrow  strip  of  land  which  here 
separates  the  Rivers.  The  second  comprises  a  large  region 
irrigated  by  the  Euphrates  by  means  of  canals,  which, 
however,  do  not  reach  to  the  Tigris,  but  either  return  to 
the  parent  stream  or  are  spent  in  the  sands  and  marshes. 
Roughly  speaking,  it  would  extend  southward  to  about 
the  ancient  Tello  (§  95).  The  third  portion  contains 
what  may  be  strictly  called  Southern  Babylonia,  including 
such  ancient  sites  as  Tello,  Erech,  Ur,  and  Eridu  ( §  100  f.). 
Here  the  waters  of  the  Euphrates  are  nearly  exhausted  by 
subsidence  and  deflection,  and  new  sources  of  supply  are 
found  in  the  great  canals  that  were  led  off  from  the  fuller 
and  more  rapid  Tigris  well  up  the  stream,  and  brought 
southwestward  towards  the  lower  Euphrates. 

§  1292.  It  is  in  the  middle  division  that  we  are  par- 
ticularly interested.  At  the  era  of  the  Exile  the  life  of 
the  world  pulsed  to  and  from  Babylon  unceasingly.     The 

1  It  would  be  more  correct  to  refer  to  prehistoric  conditions  and  to 
say  that  this  territory  is  a  deposit  of  the  several  streams  that  formerly 
ran  into  the  sea,  branching  off  from  the  Euphrates  and  Tigris  at  the  end 
of  their  middle  course.     Cf.  Gen.  ii. 


Ch.  XIV,  §  1293  THE   WATER   SLTPLY  337 

water  of  the  Euphrates  clothed  with  verdure  and  beauty 
the  soil  which  it  had  brought  down  from  the  far-away 
mountains  of  the  north.  Wherever  the  waters  flowed 
regularly  or  were  judiciously  distributed  there  was  fer- 
tility and  plenty.  Wherever  there  was  either  prolonged 
inundation  or  continued  dryness  there  was  desolation  and 
barrenness.  The  last-named  conditions  are  those  which 
prevail  at  the  present  day ;  the  former  were  maintained 
in  the  old  Semitic  centuries  or  rather  millenniums,  the 
times  of  Babylonia's  greatness.  But  the  main  practical 
question  then  was,  how  to  make  the  life-giving  water 
reach  far  enough ;  how  to  economize  it  in  one  place  that 
it  might  be  available  in  another.  It  was  only  in  excep- 
tional seasons  that  there  was  a  superabundance  of  the 
supply.  By  careful  management  there  was  enough  for 
the  region  of  the  Euphrates  proper  such  as  I  have  indi- 
cated above.  That  is  to  say,  this  territory  was  not  only 
habitable  but  luxurious ;  not  only  good  for  pasturage,  but 
the  most  productive  part  of  the  world  for  grain,  for  herbs, 
and  the  fruits  of  the  earth  generally.  But  to  the  eastward 
of  the  range  of  regular  irrigation  there  was  barrenness, 
at  least  there  was  merely  pasturage  for  flocks  great  or 
small.  Instead  of  cities  there  were  villages  or  encamp- 
ments of  Aramcean  shepherds,  whose  tents  were  most 
numerous  near  or  along  the  Tigris.  Naturally  the  extent 
of  arable  and  productive  land  varied  greatly  with  the 
political  fortunes  of  the  people,  their  industrial  habits  and 
training,  and  their  control  of  the  water  supply. 

§  1293.  But  everywhere  and  at  all  seasons  vigilance 
and  energy  were  essential  to  prosperity  or  even  to  a  sub- 
sistence, possible  affluence  and  equally  possible  penury 
being  separated  by  narrow  chances.  The  principal  condi- 
tions, natural  and  artificial,  were  the  height  or  breadth  of 
the  river  at  its  flood  and  the  number  and  size  of  canals 
drawing  off  water  above  the  region  affected.  What  the 
possibilities  were  may  be  illustrated  from  modern  expe- 
riences.     When   the   members   of   the   second    American 


338  MODERN    WATER    SUPPLY  Book  X 

exploring  expedition  to  Babylonia  reached  Hillah,  the 
region  of  ancient  Babylon,  on  Jan.  2,  1890,  they  found 
the  bed  of  the  Euphrates  at  that  point  nearly  dry,  after 
months  of  drought  which  had  left  the  river,  in  its  normal 
course  farther  up  the  stream,  much  lower  than  usual.  I 
quote  from  the  narrative  of  Dr.  Peters:  "The  rains  which 
had  fallen  in  the  last  two  weeks  had  not  been  sufficient  to 
make  good  the  drought  of  the  summer.  What  was  left  of 
the  Euphrates  seemed  to  have  deserted  its  original  course 
almost  entirely  and  poured  itself  through  the  Hindieh 
canal  into  the  Abu  Xejm  and  other  marshes." *  This 
canal,  which  finally  merges  itself  in  the  Pallakopas  of  the 
Greeks  (§  100),  runs  southwestward  from  a  point  about 
halfway  between  Babylon  and  Sippar  (§  94).  A  later  pas- 
sage gives  an  instructive  explanation.2  "Since  the  time 
of  Alexander  the  Great,  if  not  before,  the  Hindieh  caiial 
has  been  a  perpetual  source  of  trouble  to  the  rulers  of  the 
country.  .  .  .  The  lay  of  the  land,  as  already  stated,  is 
such  that  the  Euphrates  soon  showed  a  tendency  to  abandon 
its  proper  course,  and  descending  by  the  Hindieh  to  form 
great  marshes  to  the  west  and  south  of  Borsippa.  Dam 
after  dam  has  been  erected,  and  broken.  The  last  dam 
broke  about  ten  years  ago,3  and  by  the  summer  of  188!) 
the  Euphrates  had  entirely  abandoned  its  proper  course. 
For  months,  at  Hillah  and  below,  the  river  bed  was  en- 
tirely dry.  At  Babylon  the  ancient  quay  of  Nebucha- 
drezzar was  exposed  in  its  full  extent,  and  to  get  water  to 
drink  people  dug  wells  at  the  foot  of  it.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  country  to  the  west  of  the  Euphrates  suffered 
almost  as  seriously  from  excessive  inundation,  a  great  part 
of  the  region  being  converted  into  swamps.  At  the  time 
of  my  visit  the  work  of  restoring  the  Euphrates  to  its 
proper  bed  had  been  going  on  under  the  direction  of 
French  engineers  for  two  years.  At  a  favourable  point, 
where  the  Euphrates  and   Hindieh  are  only  a  kilometre 

1  Nippur,  II,  53.  2  Ibid,  II,  335  f.  3  Written  apparently  ia  1897. 


Ch.  XIV,  §  1294  DRIED-UP   RIVER   BED  389 

apart,  a  canal  was  dug  connecting  the  two.  A  dam  was 
then  erected  in  the  Hindieh  for  the  purpose  of  forcing  one- 
half  of  the  water  back  through  this  canal  into  the  old  bed. 
Contracts  were  made  with  the  sheikhs  of  various  villages 
to  furnish  bricks  from  the  ruins  of  Babylon.  Boats  loaded 
with  these  bricks  and  with  stones  brought  from  Hit  and 
other  points  higher  up  the  Euphrates  were  sunk  to  make 
a  foundation,  and  on  this  was  erected  a  dam  of  brush, 
earth,  and  bricks.  The  Avork  was  finally  completed  after 
my  departure  from  the  country,  and  I  am  informed  that 
one-half  of  the  water  now  descends  by  the  old  bed  of  the 
river." 

§  1294.  Another  set  of  conditions  to  the  east  of  the 
Euphrates  may  be  illustrated  from  the  same  narrative. 
A  few  days  later  the  party  crossed  the  river  at  Diwanieli, 
a  town  west  by  south  of  Nippur,  and  now  the  most 
important  official  post  in  central  Babjdonia.  Dr.  Peters 
writes :  "  At  Diwanieh,  all  was  changed  since  our  last 
visit.  There  was  not  a  drop  of  water  in  the  Euphrates, 
and  had  not  been  for  six  long  months.  The  people  drank 
water  from  wells  dug  in  the  dry  bed  of  the  stream.  The 
same  condition  prevailed  in  the  Affech  marshes,1  we 
were  told.  The  wells  ran  dry  every  few  days,  so  that  new 
ones  must  be  dug.  The  next  day  a  little  stream  of  water 
came  trickling  down  the  Euphrates,  and  the  whole  town 
turned  out  to  welcome  it.  .  .  .  It  was  clear  to  me  that  as 
the  water  had  reached  Diwanieh,  it  must  also  reach  the 
Affech  marshes  through  the  Daghara  canal."  2  Two  days 
later  Dr.  Peters  went  to  Nippur  on  horseback.  Of  this 
stage  of  his  journey  he  says  :  "  We  found  all  the  canals  and 
marshes  dried  up,  and  were  able  to  take  a  straight  course 
to  Nippur,  making  the  distance  between  that  and  Diwanieli 
only  live  hours;  something  less  than  fifteen  miles.     What 

1  To  the  west  and  southwest  of  Nippur,  named  from  the  Arab  tribo 
which  holds  the  district;  also  written  Affq,  originally  Affek. 

J  A  canal  which  once  ran  to  Nippur  from  the,  Euphrates,  leaving  the 
latter  at  a  point  twenty  miles  below  Babylon. 


340  RISING   OF   THE    WATERS  Book  X 

water  had  come  down  the  Daghara  canal  had  been  dammed 
first  by  the  Daghara  Arabs,  and  then  by  the  Behahtha, 
and  the  marshes  were  as  dry  as  a  bone."  *  During  the 
excavations  which  followed,  the  water  appeared  in  its 
usual  beds  and  canals,  partly  on  account  of  exceptionally 
heavy  rains.  Finally,  when  the  camp  broke  up  in  May, 
nearly  all  of  the  party  and  the  workmen  with  the  bag- 
gage were  sent  out  in  boats  to  Hillah.  Peters  with  a 
small  escort  went  southeastward  by  water  to  visit  Ur, 
Erech,  and  other  famous  old  sites  in  southern  Babylonia. 
Of  his  departure  he  writes :  "  We  floated  down  to  Hamud- 
al-Berjud's  camp  in  turadas,2  through  the  reeds,  in  canals  so 
covered  with  the  white  ranunculus  that  one  might  have 
fancied  snow  had  fallen.  Here  we  lunched  with  our  three 
chiefs  and  took  a  siesta.  In  the  cool,  toward  eventide, 
we  started  again,  and  as  darkness  was  falling,  landed  in 
front  of  the  magnificent  new  muthif 3  of  Hajji  Tarfa,  .  .  . 
and  as  we  journeyed  thither  we  heard  on  all  sides  a  chorus  of 
men's  voices,  working  at  the  dams  in  the  rice  fields,  for  the 
waters  were  rising  mightily,  and  the  dry  and  parched 
land  of  a  few  weeks  before  was  like  to  be  turned  into  one 
mighty  lake."  4 

§  1295.  The  following  resume  of  the  condition  of 
the  whole  region  from  the  same  source  may  fitly  be 
appended  here  even  at  the  risk  of  some  repetition : 
"  In  ancient  days  this  whole  country  teemed  with  a 
vast  population,  and  was  dotted  with  innumerable  cities. 
.  .  .  Another  class  of  ruins,  the  ruins  of  the  ancient 
canals,  I  have  not  noticed  at  all,  although  they  are,  if  pos- 
sible, more  numerous,  more  striking,  and  more  character- 
istic than  the  ruins  of  the  cities.  They  run  like  great 
arteries  through  the  country,  lines  of  mounds,  ten  to  thirty 
feet  high,  stretching  in  all  directions  as  far  as  the  eye  can 

1  See  Nippur,  II,  60-63. 

2  Round  boats  used  on  Babylonian  streams  and  marshes  (§  1305). 

3  The  guest  house,  or,  more  frequently,  hut,  of  an  Arab  chief. 

4  Xippur,  II,  102.     Cf.  the  vision  of  rising  waters  in  Ez.  xlvii.  1-12. 


Ch.  XIV,  §  12%      THE   COUNTRY   AT   PRESENT  341 

reach.  Once  they  carried  life-blood  to  every  part  of  the 
land,  for  the  life  of  this  country  is  water.  Give  it  canals 
and  reservoirs  and  dams,  to  distribute  and  control  the 
water  supply,  as  Nebuchadrezzar  and  other  great  kings 
did,  and  it  is  capable  of  supporting,  by  its  enormous  produc- 
tivity, an  incredibly  large  population.  Break  its  dams, 
choke  its  canals,  and  it  lapses  into  poverty  and  barbarism. 
Such  is  its  present  condition.  There  is  a  very  scanty  popu- 
lation, largely  in  the  bedouin  state.  There  are  few  towns, 
and  those  without  industry  or  commerce.  There  is  no 
irrigation  except  of  the  rudest  sort,  close  to  the  river  banks  ; 
and  the  land  is  alternately  inundated  and  parched.  There 
is  no  government  excepting  heavy  oppression  and  irregular 
bribes  and  taxes.  There  is  a  general  state  of  insecurity. 
There  is  not  a  road  in  the  whole  country,  and  no  means  of 
locomotion,  and  the  most  primitive  and  obstructive  igno- 
rance prevails  eveiywhere.  The  first  parent  of  our  civil- 
ization is  in  his  decrepit  second  childhood,  but  in  the  Tigris 
and  Euphrates  exists  for  him  a  fountain  of  perpetual  youth. 
Some  day  water  from  that  fountain  will  be  held  to  his 
shrivelled  lips,  the  life-blood  will  course  once  more  through 
his  atrophied  veins  and  arteries,  and  he  will  rise  to  a  new 
life,  strong  and  vigorous  as  when  in  days  of  yore  he  begat 
nations  and  knowledge  together.  "  1 

§  1296.  It  was  in  the  most  vigorous  and  productive 
age  of  all  the  long  history  of  Babylonia  that  the  exiles  of 
Israel  were  planted  within  its  borders.  It  was  in  the 
eighth  year  of  Nebuchadrezzar  that  the  settlement  was 
made.  He  was  then  freed  from  the  embarrassments  in 
east  and  west  which  had  kept  him  busy  in  the  beginning 
of  his  reign.  With  all  his  energy  he  was  devoting  himself 
to  the  development  and  enrichment  of  his  empire.  Hence 
his  various  public  works  great  and  small.  The  captives 
of  his  necessary  wars  must  be  made  to  fit  into  his  plan. 

1  Nippur,  II.  306.  Compare  the  fine  but  all  too  short  article,  "  Euphra- 
tes," in  the  Encyclopaedia  Britannica,  vol.  viii,  by  the  late  Sir  Henry 
Rawlinson. 


342  SITE    OF   THE    CHIEF   COLONY  Book  X 

Hence  the  Hebrews  were  placed  in  the  region  of  the 
Kebar.  The  very  name  of  their  chief  gathering-place, 
Tel-Abub,1  is  suggestive  of  the  work  which  they  were  to 
undertake.  It  means  the  "  ruin-mound  of  the  delude." 
Jt  was  perhaps  "a  desolation  of  many  generations,"2  and 
distinguished  among  the  similar  ruined  settlements  of  the 
country  from  a  supposed  association  with  the  great  deluge, 
which  was  commemorated  alike  in  the  traditions  of  the 
captive  people  and  in  those  of  the  lords  of  the  land.  How 
appropriate  was  the  fate  of  the  exiles,  that  their  life  work 
was  to  be  the  repairing  of  a  ruined  settlement  while  their 
own  home  was  itself  in  ruins  ! 

§  1297.  There  is  another  indication  that  the  exiles  occu- 
pied an  abandoned  district.  If  the  land  had  been  already 
in  a  satisfactory  state  of  cultivation,  it  would  have  had  a 
population,  bond  and  free,  which  it  would  have  been  folly 
to  extrude  for  the  sake  of  untrained  foreigners.  Again,  as 
some  of  the  exiles  were  apparently  men  of  property,  the 
freeholds  which  they  could  most  readily  acquire  were  the 
waste-lands  of  the  country,  just  as  in  the  present  century 
homesteads  have  been  granted  on  easy  terms  to  settlers  in 
the  United  States  and  Canada.  The  whole  situation  thus 
assumed  fits  in  well  with  the  policy  of  Nebuchadrezzar. 
All  economical  and  political  considerations  would  move 
him  to  employ  the  immigrants  in  such  a  way  as  to  gradu- 
ally accustom  them  to  the  life  and  business  of  the  country, 
without  interfering  with  the  possessions  of  others. 

1  Ezek.  iii.  15,  usually  written,  after  the  slight  error  of  the  received 
Hebrew  text,  Tel-Abib,  and  explained  as  "  mound  of  corn-ears,"  or 
'■  Cornbill."  But  the  word  is  a  very  common  one  in  the  Assyrian  litera- 
ture, though  not  as  the  name  of  a  city,  just  as  the  phenomenon  itself  was 
very  usual.     The  Babylonians  did  not  speak  Hebrew  ! 

2  The  business  of  restoring  waste  places,  assigned  to  his  fellow-coun- 
trymen, may  have  suggested  the  frequent  references  to  such  a  task  or 
achievement  in  the  writings  of  the  Second  Isaiah  ;  e.g.  Isa.  xlix.  10,  lviii. 
12,  lxi.  4.  Observe  also  his  allusions  to  the  rushing,  destructive  flood 
(lix.  19),  to  the  overflowing  stream  with  its  enriching  waters  (xlviii.  18, 
lxvi.  12),  and  to  the  "  well-watered  garden,"  in  connection  with  the 
building  up  of  waste  places  (lviii.  11). 


Ch.  XIV,  §  1209  LOCAL   CANAL   SYSTEM  343 

§  1298.  To  resume  :  the  chief  community  of  the  exiles 
was  planted  as  a  crown  colony  in  the  centre  of  Babylonia ; 
in  a  temporarily  abandoned  district ;  close  to  the  mound  of 
a  noted  ruin  ;  on  the  edge  of  a  considerable  canal  not  far 
from  the  famous  old  city  of  Nippur,  naturally  within  its 
sphere  of  influence,  yet  not  under  its  jurisdiction  ;  and  the 
most  important  condition  of  its  prosperity  was  the  possi- 
bility of  a  good  water-supply. 

§  1299.  The  general  distribution  of  the  canal  system 
has  already  been  indicated  (§  1291).  A  more  particular 
survey  of  the  watercourses  of  this  region  will  show  that  its 
chances  were  not  unfavourable.  The  Euphrates  was  not 
directly  the  main  feeder  of  its  streams.  The  great  source 
of  supply  was  the  Shatt-en-Nil,  the  most  important  canal, 
indeed,  of  all  Babjdonia,  because  the  most  central  besides 
being  one  of  the  longest.  It  is  sometimes  described  as 
having  left  the  Euphrates  just  above  the  city,  running 
eastward  to  the  Tigris  and  sending  down  a  branch  as  far 
as  Nippur.1  This,  however,  can  hardly  be  correct.  The 
canal  which  thus  starts  from  near  Babylon  was  at  first  an 
independent  artificial  stream,  parallel  to  the  S}Tstem  of 
interfluvial  drainage  of  North  Babylonia  above  described. 
Through  its  importance  to  the  capital  and  its  union  with 
the  Shatt-en-Nil  proper,  it  came  to  be  considered  the  pri- 
mary source  of  this  great  canal,  which  was  really  at  first  an 
independent  branch  of  the  Euphrates,  like  the  Pallakopas. 
It  separated  from  the  main  stream  near  Sippar,  running- 
downward  by  Nippur,  and  thence  far  along  beside  Erech 
to  the  sea,  in  the  days  when  no  dry  land  lay  farther  south. 
We  have  to  think  also  of  other  watercourses  as  supplying 
the  settlement,  having  the  Euphrates  as  their  source,  such 
as  the  Daghara  canal  (§  1294),  running  east  or  south  from 
the  parent  stream.  Most  probably  not  one  of  these,  but 
one  derived  from  the  Shatt-en-Nil,  and  running  eastward, 
was  the  Kebar. 


1  Sir  Henry  Rawlin.son,  article  "  Euphrates,"  in  the  Encycl.  Brit. 


344  OPENING   OF   BRANCH   CANALS  Book  X 

§  1300.  The  function  of  the  Kebar  probably  was  to  ex- 
tend the  water-supply  farther  out  into  the  barren  region 
that  stretched  away  towards  the  Tigris.  How  such 
streams  larger  or  smaller  came  to  be  multiplied  is  suggested 
by  an  entry  in  the  diary  of  Dr.  Peters  of  March  17, 1889,  with 
regard  to  this  very  neighbourhood,  Nippur  being  then  the 
centre  of  his  survey.  "  Yesterday  Harper  and  I  rode  out  to 
two  small  mounds  about  an  hour  and  a  half  away  to  the 
northeast,  called  Abu  Jo  wan  or  Father  of  Millstones.  .  .  . 
There  are  several  large  canal  beds  in  the  neighbourhood. 
One  we  followed  westward,  but  it  disappeared  about  half  an 
hour  from  Nippur.  I  think  it  originally  went  on  and  joined 
the  Shatt-en-Nil  to  the  north  of  the  mound.1  We  passed 
several  cross  canals  on  the  way.  The  sand-hills  lie  to  the 
north  and  northeast  of  us ;  they  are  of  fine  sea-sand,2  and 
constantly  change  shape  as  blown  about  by  the  wind.  The 
Euphrates  seems  to  be  rising,  and  the  water  is  approaching 
the  mound  on  the  north  and  west.''3  In  the  period  of  re- 
construction with  which  we  are  concerned,  there  were, 
doubtless,  also,  apart  from  the  Kebar,  many  old  canal  beds 
to  be  reopened,  and,  what  was  of  equal  consequence,  new 
watercourses  had  to  be  dug  until  the  whole  country  be- 
came reticulated  with  them.  Not  until  then  could  it  be 
permeated  with  the  "  water  of  life." 

§  1301.  "When  the  colony  had  been  quartered  in  this 
region,  they  began  to  build  more  permanent  dwelling- 
places.  Those  of  them  who  soon  or  later  came  to  have 
houses  of  the  better  class  had  no  need  of  elaborate  brick- 
making.  The  chief  materials  were  obtained  from  the 
mounds    of    ruined   towns   in    the   neighbourhood ;    or    a 


1  The  great  mound,  namely,  that  of  Nippur. 

2  This  ''sea-sand''  gives  the  explanation  of  the  arenaceous  character 
of  much  of  the  surface  of  the  country.  It  is  brought  up  in  large  quanti- 
ties by  the  frequent  winds  from  the  seashore  and  the  adjacent  desert. 
These  winds,  by  the  way,  occasion  many  of  the  cyclones,  which,  com- 
bined with  inundations  or  rain  storms,  produce  a  "deluge  "  (cf.  §  1290). 

3  Nippur,  I,  258. 


Ch.  XIV,  §  1302      VARIETY   OF   EMPLOYMENT  345 

lot  of  sun-dried  bricks  was  ordered  from  the  nearest 
factory.  Most  of  them  as  slaves  of  native  planters  had, 
however,  to  put  up  with  the  ordinary  simple  structure  — 
a  hut  of  reeds  matted  together  with  tough  marsh-grass 
and  overlaid  with  bitumen.  While  shelter  was  thus  being 
provided,  their  essential  work  had  already  begun.  Dams 
and  dikes  were  created  to  prevent  possible  overflows.  Old 
watercourses  half  choked  up  were  cleaned  out,  and  new 
ones  were  started.  The  soil  had  also  to  be  prepared  in 
many  places,  especially  on  the  marshy  lands,  where  the 
reeds  and  thick  grasses  had  to  be  removed  by  burning. 
Contrivances  for  the  raising  and  carrying  of  water  to  the 
fields  were  also  set  in  place  and  order  before  the  first  grow- 
ing season  had  been  entered  upon. 

§  1302.  Such  in  the  main  was  the  early  employment 
of  this  important  section  of  the  exiles.  We  must  not 
think,  however,  of  these  essays  as  being,  to  any  large 
extent,  independent  work.  The  few  who  secured  estates 
for  themselves  hired  or  bought  native  labourers,  skilled 
and  unskilled.  The  majority  found  their  places  under 
native  overseers.  To  follow  them  up  further  at  their 
work  would  be  to  see  an  extension  of  the  same  opera- 
tions. We  should  observe  the  cutting  of  new  aqueducts 
for  lands  newly  reclaimed  from  the  sand  or  the  marshes, 
with  reservoirs  for  the  needs  of  the  growing  population  ;  and 
here  and  there  larger  streams  for  towns  and  villages,  with 
smaller  channels  planted  at  the  centres  of  irrigation,  divert- 
ing the  water  to  the  separate  estates  or  to  fields  of  grain, 
or  to  groves  of  date-palms.  With  increasing  wants  and 
resources  came  the  adoption  and  use  of  various  mechanical 
devices  for  the  conservation,  distribution,  and  regulation 
of  the  waters,  the  sluices,  gates,  and  locks  of  the  canals, 
the  wheels1  and  other  contrivances  for  raising  water  in 
smaller  quantities  and  for  conveying  it  to  needy  places. 

i  These  water-wheels  deserve  more  than  a  mere  mention.  We  can 
judge  of  them  only  from  modern  survivals,  but  we  may  be  sure  that  they 
were  employed  by  the  ancients  also,  though  in  a  far  better  fashion,  since 


346  PROGRESS   OF   THE    SETTLEMENT  Book  X 

§  1803.  Thus  went  on,  under  the  eyes  and  by  the 
growing  skill  of  the  toilers,  the  regeneration  of  the  district 
for  which  they  were  made  so  largely  responsible.  Acres 
of  rich  vegetation  were  yearly  added  to  the  productive 
areas  —  wheat  and  sesame  indigenous  to  the  country,  and 
abundance  of  vegetables,  particularly  of  melons  and  cucum- 
bers, radishes,  leeks,  and  onions,  for  which  the  country  was 
renowned.1  Palm  trees  abounded,  not  like  the  isolated 
grove  of  Jericho,  but  in  long  and  stately  rows  wherever 
the  kindly  moisture  bade  them  grow  and  thrive.  And  not 
least  important  were  the  pasture-grounds,  widening  out 
with  the  expansion  of  the  water-meadow  and  the  tilth. 
Here  were  reared  the  sheep  and  cattle  that  now  served  for 
food  or  wealth  alone,  and  not  also  for  sacrifice,  and  oxen 
for  labour  at  the  plough  or  the  wagon  or  the  water- 
wheel. 

§  1304.  Thus  "  the  desert  was  rejoicing  and  blossom- 
ing like  a  meadow-flower"  (Isa.  xxxv.  1),  and  the  exiles 
still  half-enslaved  were  renewing  their  life  and  prosperity. 
They  were  now  in  a  goodty  land.  To  north  and  south, 
but  especially  to  the  west,  one  looked  over  smiling  fields 
and  meadows  of  the  richest  green,  and  among  them  here 
and  there  the  glimmering  waters.     Only  to  the  east  the 

the  latter-day  inhabitants  of  the  region  invent  nothing.  The  great  water- 
wheels  (naoura)  are  used  where  there  is  a  strong  current.  Dams  are 
run  far  out  from  the  bank  to  raise  the  level  of  the  stream  and  so  increase 
the  water  power.  This  is  used  to  turn  large  wheels,  often  of  thirty  feet 
in  diameter,  made  mostly  of  boughs,  with  paddles  of  palm  leaves.  The 
wheels  are  attached  to  the  ends  of  the  dams  or  piers,  and  raise  the  water 
to  a  trough,  whence  it  is  distributed  to  the  fields  of  grain  or  melons,  or  to 
tin-  gardens  along  the  banks.  These  wheels  impede  navigation  seriously. 
The  ox  water-wheels  (jird)  are  far  more  common  and  are  used  more  in 
canals  of  lower  Babylonia  than  in  the  main  Euphrates.  On  a  declivity 
on  the  bank  of  the  stream,  ropes  on  block-wheels  run  up  and  down,  hav- 
ing water-skins  attached  to  them,  and  being  raised  and  lowered  by  oxen 
on  the  shore.  See  the  illustration  in  Nippur,  1,  13G,  and  cf.  ibid.,  p.  154  f. 
ami  320,  and  the  article  "  Euphrates"  in  the  Encycl.  Brit. 

1  Cf.  the  list  of  vegetables  and  plants  —  seventy  in  number  —  in  the 
garden  of  Merodach-baladan ;  see  Delitzsch,  Prolegomena,  p.  84. 


Cu.  XIV,  §  1305        OCCASIONAL   DRAWBACKS  847 

view  was  of  bare  and  uncultivated  steppes.  This  outlook 
was  an  incentive  as  well  as  a  disappointment.  In  that 
spreading  waste  was  the  hope  of  a  larger  conquest  of  nature. 
Yet  it  suggested  to  them  the  presence  of  enemies.  It 
was  not  always  a  time  of  verdure  and  fertility.  Floods 
and  storms  and  drought  came  now  and  then  with  desola- 
tion in  their  train.  During  the  long  months  of  drought  it 
was  the  cattle  that  suffered  most  severely.  Unless  driven 
off  from  the  dried-up  marshes  and  meadows  to  other  pastures 
near  or  far,  they  must  perish  as  they  perish  frequently  in 
less-favoured  modern  days.  Nor  were  drawbacks  lacking 
in  the  best  of  times.  The  greed  or  the  carelessness  of 
neighbours  or  rivals  higher  up  the  streams  might  preempt 
the  water  of  a  whole  settlement ;  and  it  was  not  impossi- 
ble that  dams  might  be  built  over  night  that  would  dry 
up  the  aqueducts  for  a  score  of  miles  below.  Always  and 
for  all  things  in  this  rich  and  capricious  land  vigilance 
and  alertness  were  the  first  essentials,  not  on  the  part  of 
individuals  so  much  as  on  the  part  of  the  whole  com- 
munity who  here  were  committed  to  common  action  and 
mutual  helpfulness  which  their  general  condition  other- 
wise did  not  easily  evoke. 

§  1305.  Such  or  the  like  was  the  chief  employment  of 
the  Hebrew  exiles  as  rooted  in  the  watercourses  which 
they  found  or  made.  But  the  Babylonian  canal  was 
something  more  than  a  giver  of  fertility.  It  was  also  a 
navigable  stream,  an  avenue  of  commerce  and  travel. 
Such  was  the  Kebar,  over  whose  surface  boats  and  barges 
moved  to  and  from  and  past  Tel-Abub.  To  some  extent, 
this  may  from  the  beginning  have  given  some  employment 
to  the  exiles;  at  any  rate  they  were  ultimately  involved 
in  it  with  the  development  of  the  district,  and  contrib- 
uted their  quota  to  the  man}-  hands  required  to  man  and 
propel  the  vessels.  Thus  an  essential  part  of  their  environ- 
ment was  the  river  craft  familiar  to  Babylonians,  who, 
from  the  scarcity  of  timber,  often  constructed  their  ves- 
sels of  lighter  materials.     Thus  there  were  seen  rafts  kept 


348  CANAL   NAVIGATION  Book  X 

afloat  by  inflated  skins  ; 2  or  oblong  punts,  half  raft  and  half 
wherry,  made  of  hides  stretched  over  willow  branches;2  or 
round  little  coracles,  the  modern  turadas  ;  or  canoe-shaped 
vessels,  often  attaining  to  the  dignity  of  barges,  either 
propelled  by  oars  or  towed  along  the  shore.3 

§  1306.  There  is  room  for  plausible  conjecture  as  to 
what  became  of  the  ''carvers  and  joiners"  (§  1275)  and 
the  artisans  in  general,  who  were  carried  away  in  the  first 
captivity  (2  K.  xxiv.  16).  Insomuch  as  the  chief  demand 
was  for  agricultural  labourers,  it  is  altogether  likely  that 
many  of  these  working-people  were  drafted  off  to  the  canals 
and  the  marshes.  For  the  remainder,  places  would  be  found 
in  various  factories,  especially  in  Babylon  (§  1273).  These 
were  naturally  kept  in  bondage,  though  not  necessarily  in 
perpetuity  (§  1280).4  After  a  time  they  would  be  undis- 
tinguishable  except  by  name  from  artisans  of  Babylonian 
descent.     Their  chief  disability  as  Hebrews  would  be  that 


1  Illustrated  on  the  Assyrian  monuments.  They  were  used  for  many 
purposes  and  were  of  various  sizes,  from  the  simple  structures  required 
t  i  ferry  over  one  or  two  passengers,  to  the  larger  rafts  put  together  for 
the  transport,  in  sections,  over  large  rivers,  of  armies  on  the  march,  as 
by  Tiglathpileser  I,  Asshurnasirpal,  and  Shalmaneser  II. 

2  As  described  minutely  by  Herodotus,  I,  194. 

3  On  the  modern  streams  of  Babylonia  the  most  characteristic  vessels, 
besides  the  tub-like  coracles,  are  the  large  boats,  averaging  about  thirty 
feet  in  length,  and  made  of  a  wooden  frame,  over  which  a  thick  matting 
of  closely  plaited  grass  or  reeds  is  placed,  secured  by  cords  of  bulrush,  the 
whole  being  thoroughly  pitched  with  melted  bitumen.  At  Hit,  one  hun- 
dred miles  above  Babylon,  on  the  Euphrates,  there  is  a  ship  or  boat  yard. 
The  process  of  making  is  fully  described  in  the  diary  of  Dr.  W.  H.  Ward, 
of  the  Wolfe  expedition,  published  in  Nippur  as  an  appendix  to  Vol.  I 
(see  p.  :157  f.,  and  cf.  Peters,  ib.  I,  101  f.).  For  modes  of  navigating  the 
Euphrates  and  Tigris,  cf.  Kaulen,  Asst/rini  und  Babylonien,  p.  7  ff.,  where 
illustrations  are  given.  On  the  largest  streams,  but  scarcely  on  the  Kebar, 
were  still  more  capacious  vessels,  of  which  the  "  ark  "  of  the  Bible  and 
of  the  Babylonian  Flood  story  is  a  projection. 

4  Artisans  were  usually  slaves  in  all  ancient  countries  where  manufac- 
tures of  any  extent  were  carried  on.  Even  the  foremen  might  be  slaves. 
We  are  familiar  with  the  employment  of  slaves  in  Athens  as  armourers  and 
upholsterers.     Naturally,  only  the  masters  were  members  of  the  guilds. 


Ch.  XIV,  §  1306      OTHER   GROUPS   OF  EXILES  349 

they  could  not  easily  mingle  with  their  brethren  or  take 
an  active  part  in  the  affairs  of  the  remnant  of  Israel.  Yet 
we  must  not  lay  too  much  stress  on  these  disadvantages. 
After  all,  the  chief  factor  in  the  case  was  loyalty  and 
devotion  to  the  fatherland  and  its  institutions ;  and  the 
sequel  shows  that  at  length  many  from  all  classes  of  the 
exiles  took  part  in  the  restoration  of  Israel. 


CHAPTER   XV 

THE   EXILES   AS   A   COMMUNITY 

§  1307.  The  relations  of  the  settlements  to  the  central 
government  are  not  definitely  known.  We  can  only  infer 
from  general  allusions  in  the  Bible  that  in  the  manage- 
ment of  their  affairs  as  a  people  they  were  left  pretty 
much  to  themselves.  The  king's  officers  who  directed  the 
march  to  the  banks  of  the  Kebar  were  replaced  there  by 
others,  who  disposed  of  the  persons  of  this  principal 
detachment  and  secured  their  orderly  settlement.  There- 
after royal  officers  had  to  exercise  a  general  supervision, 
make  a  periodical  inspection,  and  report  to  the  proper 
department  at  Babylon,  while  others  collected  as  regu- 
larly the  inevitable  imposts  from  the  landholders  and  ten- 
ants of  the  district.  As  the  settlement  was  an  outgrowth 
of  the  policy  of  Nebuchadrezzar,  we  may  assume  that  he 
kept  himself  informed  of  its  progress. 

§  1308.  As  everything  that  concerns  the  Great  King 
is  a  matter  of  biblical  interest,  it  touches  us  sympatheti- 
cally to  know  that  this  business  of  canal-making  and  of 
reclaiming  the  soil  of  his  country  was  one  of  the  things 
that  were  nearest  his  heart.  In  this  he  was  but  following 
in  the  path  of  the  most  patriotic  kings  of  Assyria  and  Baby- 
lonia, who  counted  it  one  of  their  chief  titles  to  honour 
that  they  had,  by  the  making  and  equipment  of  canals  and 
aqueducts,  enriched  and  blessed  their  subjects.  We  are 
perhaps  too  apt  to  regard  these  ancient  kings  as  mere 
selfish  conquerors,  and  to  forget  that  much  of  their  time 
was  spent  in  devising  means  for  the  upbuilding  of  their 

350 


Ch.  XV,  §  1310     THE    EXILES   AND   THE    NATION  351 

country  by  the  arts  of  peace.  The  very  names  1  which 
they  bestowed  on  the  chief  watercourses  reveal  their  deep 
sense  of  the  life-giving  properties  of  the  streams,  and  their 
gratitude  to  the  gods  for  their  bounty  to  the  land  which 
was  held  to  be  their  peculiar  care.  Nor  will  their  piety 
seem  to  us  superstitious  or  ridiculous  when  we  remember 
that  these  "givers  of  life"  converted  into  a  blessing  to 
the  land  what  else  would  have  been,  as  it  once  was  and 
now  actually  is,  a  bringer  of  desolation  and  death.  A 
principal  result  of  our  inquiry  accordingly  is  that  we  have 
gained  a  conception  of  the  living  bond  of  interest  between 
the  humble  Hebrew  husbandmen  and  the  rulers  of  the  land. 
This  goes  far  to  explain  the  anomaly  given  in  the  fact  that 
these  exiles  survived  and  prospered  in  the  country  of  their 
conquerors  for  two  generations. 

§  1309.  For  the  question  of  the  internal  organization 
of  the  Hebrews  in  Babylonia  we  must  confine  ourselves  to 
the  larger  settlements,  to  which  was  left  the  possibility 
of  self-government.  And  the  first  thing  that  strikes  us  is 
the  fact  that  in  some  way  from  the  very  beginning  the 
solidarity  of  the  survivors  of  Israel  was  maintained. 
There  was  no  obliteration  of  any  large  number  at  any 
time.  There  was  communication  between  the  several 
sections  of  them  when  there  was  need  of  conference, 
always  of  course  by  the  leave  of  the  government  officials, 
who  were  intolerant  only  of  sedition,  and  with  the  con- 
sent of  the  employers  of  their  labour. 

§  1310.  What,  then,  was  the  internal  organization  of 
the  colony  or  colonies?     Fortunately,    we   may  give  at 

1  It  is  significant  of  the  honour  in  which  these  beneficent  streams  were 
held  that  each  of  them  had  a  name  and  character  of  its  own.  This  is 
shown,  for  example,  by  a  business  inscription  published  in  PCT.  IX.. 
nr.  48  (cf.  p.  3G  f.),  where  a  single  property  producing  a  very 
moderate  rent  is  described  minutely  as  lying  between  two  canals,  one  of 
them  bearing  the  lordly  name  of  Sin,  and  the  other  called  Shilihtu,  or 
"outflow,"  a  name  kindred  in  form  and  meaning  with  the  "Shiloali  '"  of 
Isa.  viii.  6  or  the  "Siloam"  of  John  ix.  7.  Compare  the  names  of  the 
greater  aqueducts  cited  by  Delitzsch  in  Par.  p.  187  ff. 


352  A   SIMPLE   GOVERNMENTAL   TYPE  Book  X 

least  a  general  answer.  Our  preliminary  studies  as  to  the 
development  of  Hebrew  society  have  shown  us  how  simple 
and  elastic  was  its  fundamental  structure.  The  com- 
munity that  so  long  maintained  itself  as  a  nation  in  Pal- 
estine was  now  reduced  to  its  essential  elements;  and  this 
was  effected  directly,  not  by  exile,  but  by  the  abolition  of 
the  kingdom.  We  have  to  eliminate  the  last  two  main 
stages  of  development.  First,  we  are  to  conceive  the 
Hebrews  in  Babylonia  as  being  without  king  and  nobles 
(536  f.),  and  next  as  having  discarded  the  administra- 
tive divisions  with  their  rulers  or  princes  (§  530  f.). 
The  doing  away  with  city  government  is  not  so  cardinal 
a  distinction  as  it  might  seem,  since  the  cities  were 
administered  virtually  on  the  same  principles  as  the  old 
tribal  communities,  that  is,  by  the  "elders"  and  the 
family  chiefs  (§  486).  And  these  are  just  the  functiona- 
ries whom  we  find  referred  to  in  the  meagre  records  of 
the  time  and  people. 

§  1311.  That  a  great  deal  of  social  confusion  prevailed 
in  the  earlier  days  of  the  colony  must  be  taken  for  granted. 
It  was  the  reerection  of  a  community,  the  formation  of  a 
new  and  unique  social  organism,  that  then  went  on. 
But  here,  again,  we  must  not  exaggerate  the  difficulties 
or  suppose  that  the  changes  amounted  to  a  social  revolu- 
tion. In  the  large  first  deportation  very  many,  perhaps 
most,  of  the  families  were  left  intact  —  not  so  much  in 
the  interest  of  the  people  affected,  as  for  the  benefit  of  the 
land  to  be  cultivated.  And  where  the  old  heads  of  the 
family  groups  and  clans  did  not  survive,  new  ones  were 
readily  chosen,  the  very  disorder  of  the  settlement  making 
a  choice  imperative.  The  elders  also  would  take  their 
places,  as  in  the  times  of  old,  by  obvious  merit,  some 
simply  holding  over  from  the  Palestine  days,  and  others 
being  newly  elected.  Hence,  we  find  that  in  591  B.C. 
elders  act  in  a  full  representative  capacity  (Ez.  viii.  1; 
xiv.  1;  xx.  1).  So  much  autonomy,  indeed,  was  granted 
to  the  community,  and  so  great  was  the  influence  of  the 


Ch.  XV,  §  1312  AN    IDEAL   OF   ROYALTY  353 

heads  of  the  people,  that  we  find  some  few  of  them  early 
in  the  history  of  the  colony  planning  sedition  and  able  to 
(•any  their  measures  to  the  danger-point  (cf.  §  1169). 

§  1312.  On  the  whole,  then,  the  Hebrew  society  held 
well  together  in  exile.  The  fidelity  with  which  the 
family  records  and  genealogies  were  kept  was  both  cause 
and  effect  of  this  social  survival.  There  is  no  doubt  that 
there  were  leading  men  who  exercised  a  strong  moral 
influence,  and  perhaps  direct  supervision,  not  merely  in 
their  own  several  communities,  but  over  the  exiles  as  a 
whole.  Naturally,  these  had  a  recognized  civil  position, 
and  were  not  merely  great  prophets  or  priests,  like  Eze- 
kiel.  A  singular  evidence  of  persistent  loyalty  and  patri- 
otism is  the  figure  of  the  king  or  "prince  "  :  as  head  of  the 
nation,  which  was  kept  before  the  minds  of  the  people  all 
through  the  captivity,  until  at  length  the  dream  was,  in 
a  measure,  realized  in  the  person  of  Sheshbazzar  and 
Zerubbabel  (Ezra  i.  ff.).  It  was  out  of  the  question, 
however,  that  there  could  be  any  sort  of  magisterial  head- 
ship to  the  exiles  as  a  whole,  this  office  being  purely 
theoretical  and  ideal. 

1  For  the  period  of  the  Exile  itself,  notice  the  usage  of  Ez.  xlv.  7  ff.  and 
xlvi.  2  ff.,  and  cf.  vii.  27,  xii.  10.  The  two  passages  last-named  are  inter- 
esting as  showing  how  the  language  of  Ezekiel  was  influenced  by  his  sur- 
roundings. In  Assyrian  the  word  for  "king"  (Harm)  is  Hebrew  for 
"prince,"  and  the  word  for  "prince"  (malku)  Hebrew  for  "king." 
Compare  the  play  on  the  words  in  Isa.  x.  8. 


2  a 


Book   XI 
HEBREWS,   CHALDEANS,   AND  PERSIANS 

CHAPTER   I 

MORALS   AND   RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL   IN   EXILE 

§  1313,  What  next  concerns  us  is  the  progress  of 
the  exiles  in  their  new  home.  Here  we  must  narrow 
somewhat  the  scope  of  our  inquiry.  What  was  formerly 
most  important  to  Israel  now  becomes  more  vital  and 
significant  than  ever.  That  for  which  Israel  was  born 
(Isa.  xliv.  1  f.,  21,  24;  cf.  xliii.  7),  made  into  a  nation, 
and  honoured  with  the  divine  favour  and  love  (Isa.  xli. 
8  f . ;  xliii.  3  f.),  is  now  to  be  made  alone  conspicuous. 
All  else  that  marked  Israel  as  a  people  —  everything  that 
was  political  and  secular,  and  even  what  was  officially 
religious  —  was  now  stripped  off.  Only  "Israel"  itself 
was  left,  to  test  the  voluntary  principle  pure  and  simple 
in  religion  and  morals. 

§  1314.  To  the  making  of  the  new  Israel  the  exter- 
nal conditions  contributed  mightily.  We  naturally  think 
first  of  the  influence  exercised  upon  the  exiles  by  their 
plrysical  environment.  How  different  from  the  old  sur- 
roundings was  all  that  now  met  the  eye!  In  the  land 
of  Judah  hills  and  valleys  formed  the  constant  outlook. 
Almost  the  only  plains  were  the  bottoms  of  mountain 
gorges.  The  only  streams  were  mountain  brooks,  or  the 
deep-running  Jordan,  whose  overflow  went  to  the  profit  of 

354 


Ch.  I,  §1315  PHYSICAL    ENVIRONMENT  355 

reeds  and  jungles,  and  which  lost  itself  in  a  lake  of  salt. 
It  was,  after  all,  a  poor  country,  in  spite  of  its  vine-clad 
slopes  and  its  olive-crowned  heights  —  a  land  best  fitted 
for  humble  shepherd  folk  with  small  flocks  of  small  cattle 
and  a  hand-to-mouth  subsistence.  Here  they  beheld  an 
illimitable  plain,  almost  a  dead  level.  Yet  it  had  not  the 
dull  uniformity  of  the  great  desert  which  in  the  old  land 
they  had  seen  from  afar,  and  which  they  had  just  traversed 
for  many  a  weary  mile.  A  naked  plain,  unrelieved  by 
nature's  kindly  green  or  the  incidental  gatherings  of 
human  kind  would  have  been  intolerable,  and  would  have 
tended  to  the  degeneration  and  not  to  the  regeneration  of 
Israel..  Even  as  it  was,  the  aspect  of  the  new  land  must, 
by  unconscious  contrast,  have  brought  many  a  tear  to 
homesick  exiles,  as  they  looked  westward  over  the  river 
and  the  Arabian  waste  and  fancied  that  they  saw  in  some 
sunset  mirage  the  mountains  that  were  round  about  Jeru- 
salem. But  the  land  of  their  banishment,  level  as  it  was, 
proved  to  be  the  very  reverse  of  monotonous.  Wherever 
they  looked,  to  north  or  west  or  south,  they  beheld  the 
mounds  of  cities  great  and  small,  the  homes  or  the  monu- 
ments of  multitudes  of  men.  Nor  was  there  lack  of 
variety  in  physical  features.  What  the  mountains  and 
valleys  were  to  Palestine  the  rivers  and  canals  were  to 
Babylonia.  Nay,  they  were  ever  so  much  more;  for  they 
were  the  source  and  the  chosen  symbols  of  such  wealth 
and  prosperity  as  the  exiles  had  never  seen  or  imagined. 
§  1315.  The  effect  of  such  an  environment  upon  the 
new  inhabitants  was  unique  and  profound.  Insensibly 
they  adjusted  themselves  to  their  surroundings,  and 
gained  from  them  deep  and  lasting  impressions.  One. 
sphere  of  observation  was  of  special  importance  In  the 
home-land  the  Hebrews  had  no  conception  of  imperialism 
except  from  the  effects  upon  themselves  or  their  neigh- 
bours of  the  power  of  a  real  empire.  Nationality,  in 
the  larger  sense,  was  impossible  in  Palestine  because 
the    country   was   physically  so   broken    and    diversified. 


356  LARGER   POLITICAL   CONCEPTIONS  Book  XI 

Here,  on  the  far-stretching  plain,  tribes  and  cities  were 
welded  together,  and  from  the  unified  kingdom  as  a  centre 
a  levelling  and  combinatory  influence  had  gone  forth  over 
almost  all  the  known  world.  The  distinction  between  a 
people  and  a  nation,  hardly  possible  to  them  before,  now 
became  quite  familiar,  and  there  grew  within  them  a 
sense  of  the  ineffectiveness  of  the  squabbling  communi- 
ties among  which  they  had  run  their  career  as  compared 
with  the  empire  into  whose  centre  they  were  flung. 

§  1316.  Another  and  an  analogous  mental  departure  of 
vital  moment  was  induced  by  the  thought  of  their  own  polit- 
ical history  as  contrasted  with  the  growth  of  the  colossal 
world-kingdom.  Always  loyal  to  their  country's  destiny 
in  the  past,  always  ambitious  and  sanguine,  the  slightest 
revival  of  patriotic  hope  now  brought  to  them  visions  of  a 
dominion  not  like  to  the  narrow  domain  of  the  kings  of 
Israel  and  Judah,  but  like  to  that  of  the  king  of  kings. 
At  least  the  controlling  minds  among  the  people  were 
influenced  by  such  associations,  which,  to  be  sure,  acted 
in  any  case  but  slowly  and  subtly. 

§  1317.  We  are  more  particularly  concerned,  in  the 
meantime,  with  the  causes  which  promoted  obviously  the 
advancement  of  the  people  as  a  whole.  To  get  any  in- 
telligent notion  of  their  progress  we  should  have  to  con- 
sider these  causes  as  operating  during  a  series  of  years  or 
during  the  lifetime  of  the  first  generation  of  the  exiles. 
Recalling  what  was  said  of  the  purpose  for  which  the 
exiles  were  planted  beside  the  Kebar,  we  perceive  that 
their  very  emplojunent  there  contributed  to  make  them 
a  community  such  as  they  had  not  been  in  Palestine. 
There  the  chief  unifying  bonds  had  been  governmental 
and  ceremonial.  Both  of  these  were  now  seriously 
impaired  by  reason  of  the  destruction  of  the  kingdom  and 
of  the  temple  (§  1313).  It  was  only  a  new  social  era 
that  could  offer  similarity  of  occupation  to  any  large 
section  of  the  people.  And  here  most  of  the  shepherds, 
the  vine-dressers,   and   the   olive-growers    became   tillers 


Cii.  1,  §  1320  EMPLOYMENTS   AND   MORALS  357 


of  the  soil,  like  those  to  the  manner  born.  The  nearer 
view  which  we  have  gained  of  Babylonian  agriculture 
(  §  1301  ff.)  shows  how  it  could  become  a  factor  of  prime 
order  in  the  development  of  character.1 

§  1318.  In  our  studies  of  the  inner  development  of 
Israel  one  conclusion  stood  out  with  special  prominence. 
Apart  from  influences  of  belief  and  worship  it  was  the 
habit  of  life,  the  social  environment,  and  the  daily  avoca- 
tions, that  were  the  great  determining  moral  factors.  The 
good  and  evil  of  the  common  life  of  the  Hebrews  in  Pal- 
estine before  the  Exile  were  educed  very  largely  through 
the  stress  and  strain  of  social  antagonisms  through  the 
relations  of  the  master  and  the  slave,  of  the  creditor  and 
the  debtor,  of  the  landed  proprietor  and  the  labourer,  of 
the  judge  and  the  suitor  (§  571  ff.).  We  are  now  in  a 
position  to  illustrate  these  observations  by  comparison 
with  the  new  conditions  in  Babylonia. 

§  1319.  In  considering  the  employments  of  the  exiles 
in  their  adopted  home  (§  1290  ff.)  we  have  learned 
that  their  occupation  brought  them  into  contact  with  a 
system  of  business  vast  in  itself  and  having  many  con- 
nections. Thus  not  only  was  a  new  direction  given 
to  their  practical  energies,  but  their  work  was  uniform, 
involving  cooperation  and  minimizing  conflicting  inter- 
ests. Moreover,  this  occupation  was  the  main  source  of 
the  national  wealth  of  Babylonia  itself,  and  the  perma- 
nent calling  of  most  of  the  inhabitants,  consolidating 
their  industrial  and  social  life,  and  limiting  their  internal 
movements.  The  contrast  with  the  conditions  of  the  old 
life  in  Palestine,  and  especially  in  Judah,  is  obvious  and 
need  not  be  exhibited  at  length.  The  moral  consequences 
of  the  change  were  effected  somewhat  as  follows. 

§  1320.  According  to  the  testimony  of  the  prophets, 
Israel  was  being  inwardly  and  outwardly  ruined  by  three 
great  causes  connected  with  the  moral  life  of  the  people. 

1  Cf.  Peiser,  Keilschriftliche  ActenstUcke  aua  babylonischen   Stadten 

(1889),  p.  viii  f. 


358  MORAL   EDUCATION   OE    BUSINESS  Book  XI 

These  were  sins  of  sensual  indulgence,  of  cruelty  and 
oppression,  of  treachery  and  falsehood.  Of  these  the  last 
sort  of  evil  was  most  pervasive  and  dangerous,  because  it 
was  involved  in  and  promoted  by  the  other  two  classes. 
But  it  was.  in  a  sense,  encouraged  by  the  habits  and  tra- 
ditions of  the  business  life  characteristic  of  the  age  and 
country.  Industrial  and  commercial  morality  is  a  neces- 
sary  step  in  the  moral  evolution  of  any  community,  and  no 
considerable  state  has  ever  been  sound  and  en  during  with- 
out it  (§  990).  Lying  and  cheating  in  sale  and  barter  are 
universal  in  small  communities  everywhere.  They  are 
checked,  in  some  degree,  where  the  number  of  partici- 
pants in  the  various  lines  of  business  is  large  enough  to 
make  covenant-breaking  expensive  and  dangerous,  and 
where  the  defrauding  of  the  poor  or  weak  by  the  rich  or 
powerful  would  throw  the  wheels  of  commerce  out  of 
gear.  Lying  is  so  natural,  easy,  and  apparently  profit- 
able, that  where  the  religious  motive  is  wanting,  it  is 
abated  only  when  and  where  it  becomes  unpleasant  to  the 
liar.  In  earlier  society  nearly  all  morality  being  social. 
the  practice  of  honesty,  slowly  and  preeminently  gaining 
ground  and  becoming  an  understood  necessity  in  public 
and  business  transactions,  Avas  recognized  at  first  in  the 
courts  of  the  local  judges,  and  was  at  length  made  the  basis 
of  statutory  law.  In  Israel,  which  had  the  additional 
sanction  of  the  religion  of  Jehovah,  and  of  legislation, 
more  or  less  practical,  given  in  his  name,  honesty  never 
became  the  general  practice,  either  in  private  or  public 
life,  till  after  the  prophetic  era  (§  953,  970).  Social 
integrity  being  alien  to  the  community  as  a  whole  and  to 
the  ruling  classes,  the  prophets,  who  never  succeeded  in 
any  case  in  breaking  the  force  of  social  custom,  put  their 
protest  on  record  and  left  the  case  with  Jehovah.  Their 
vindication  and  the  enforcement  of  their  lessons  came  in 
the  strangest  fashion.  Where  precept  upon  precept  and 
line  upon  line  had  failed,  their  people  were  taught  by  men 
of  strange  lips  and  of  another  tongue  (Isa.  xxviii.  10  f.). 


Cu.  I,  §  1322  PROPERTY  AND   MORALITY  359 

s;  1321.  Wherever  there  is  landed  property  there  is  a 
potential  germ  of  business  morality,  since  security  in  the 
possession  and  transfer  of  such  property  is  the  foundation  of 
settled  life.  Accordingly,  we  find  that  while  oppression, 
treachery,  and  fraud  were  still  rife  in  Judah,  ample  legal 
safeguards  were  thrown  around  the  titles  to  real  estate. 
Thus,  immediately  before  the  final  captivity  a  contract 
was  formally  made  in  duplicate,  signed  and  sealed,  and 
subscribed  by  witnesses,  which  provides  for  the  sale  of  a 
small  portion  of  land  near  Jerusalem  (Jer.  xxxii. ;  cf. 
§  122.3).  The  terms  employed  suggest  that  the  usages  in 
detail  were  borrowed  from  Babylonian  procedure.  But 
this  indirect  allusion  to  the  judicial  forms  of  the  great 
commercial  community  gives  but  a  faint  suggestion  of  the 
minute  and  careful  provision  that  was  made  in  Babylonia 
for  the  guarding  of  the  rights  of  the  parties  to  any  busi- 
ness transaction  whatever.1 

§  1322.  Among  the  cuneiform  records,  the  so-called 
contract  tablets  are  the  most  numerous.  They  represent 
a  period  of  over  two  thousand  years,  and  are  numbered 
literally  by  thousands.2     Those  of  them  which  have  been 

1  We  have  the  testimony  of  Nicolaus  of  Damascus  (in  Mailer's  Frag- 
menta  Historicorum  Gfrcecorum,  Fr.  131)  that  the  Babylonians  "practise 
straightforwardness"  (do-KoOct  euduT-qra) :  quoted  by  Rawlinson,  KM. 
"Fourth  Monarchy,"  eh.  iii. 

-  What  has  been  published  of  business  documents  is  only  a  small  part 
of  those  already  excavated.  To  the  publications  mentioned  in  note  to  §  422 
are  to  be  added:  Strassmaier's  Babyl.  Texte  continued,  containing  inscrip- 
tions of  the  reigns  of  Nebuchadrezzar.  Cyrus,  Cambyses,  an. I  Darius  I 
(1889-1893);  PCT.  IX  (1898)  by  Hilprecht  and  Clay:  business  docu- 
ments from  Nippur  of  the  time  of  Artaxerxes  T.  The  last  named  is  of 
great  palaeographic  value.  It  also  contains  transliterated  and  trait-, 
specimens,  and  a  concordance  of  proper  names,  with  an  introduction. 
For  the  general  reader  the  most  instructive  discussions  are  those  of 
Kohler  and  Peiser  in  Babyl.  Vortrage  and  in  a  series  of  essays  issued  by 
them  (1890  ff.)  in  which,  among  nth,.]-  things,  an  attempt  is  made  to  show 
that  many  of  the  ideas  of  Roman  law  proceed  from  Babylonia.  Frag- 
ments of  old  Babylonian  laws  of  the  age  of  Chammurabi  are  published  and 
translated  with  commentary  by  Meissner  in  BA.  III.  493-523.  KB.  IV, 
Texte  juridischen  vmi  geschaftlichen  Tnhalts,  is  a  selection  "f  documents 


360  LAW   AND   USAGE   OF   CONTRACTS  Book  XI 

most  studied  and  are  best  understood  belong  to  the  Chal- 
dgean  epoch,  with  which  we  are  now  occupied,  and  the 
early  Persian  immediately  following.  Taken  altogether 
they  bear  telling  testimony  to  the  antiquity,  permanence, 
and  complexity  of  the  Babylonian  business  and  juridical 
systems.  A  few  points  may  be  instanced  to  show  what 
the  Hebrews  had  to  learn  in  adapting  themselves  to  the 
necessities  of  settled  life  in  their  eastern  home.  Notice, 
on  the  one  side,  the  entire  absence  of  any  system  of  credit 
in  ancient  Israel.  A  debt  was  the  sign  of  helpless  pov- 
erty (cf.  §  575).  If  interest  was  to  be  paid,  it  was  apt  to 
be  ruinous  usury,  so  that  all  taking  of  interest  was  for- 
bidden by  the  lawgivers.  The  only  kind  of  security  for 
a  loan  was  the  giving  of  a  pledge,  either  by  the  debtor  or 
by  a  friend  in  his  behalf.  The  non-payment  of  a  debt 
involved,  as  a  rule,  the  enslavement  of  the  debtor  or  his 
children.  These  semi-barbarous  conditions  were  naturally 
both  effect  and  cause  of  social  instability  (§  584  ff.). 

§  1323.  Now  let  us  turn  to  Babylonian  rule  and  pro- 
cedure. Among  this  people  the  primitive  conception  that 
the  creditor  had  a  claim  upon  the  person  of  the  debtor, 
while  leaving  traces  in  the  current  forms  of  stipulation,1 
was  superseded  by  the  view  that  the  creditor  was  entitled 
simply  to  the  money  due,  along  with  interest  or  a  fine  for 
persistent  non-payment.  The  borrower  or  debtor  might 
have  a  credit  with  an  agent  who  could  settle  on  his  behalf. 
On  these  principles  there  was  developed  a  system  of  finan- 
cial concerns,  which  to  a  commercial  agency  added  the 
essential  functions  of  our  modern  banks.  Extraordinary 
care  was  taken  to  secure  from  any  subsequent  claim  the 

of  all  periods  transliterated  and  translated  by  the  competent  hand  of 
Peiser.  Along  with  them  should  be  read  the  treatise  of  V.  Marx,  "  Die 
Stellung  der  Frauen  in  Babylonien  "  in  MA.  IV,  1-77  (1899)  with  remarks 
appended  by  Delitzsch.  L.  Demuth  and  E.  Ziemer  give  transliterations 
and  translations  with  notes  of  one  hundred  texts  of  the  times  of  Cyrus 
and  Cambyses  in  BA.  Ill,  393-492  (1898).  See  also  Sayce,  Babylonians 
and  Assyrians,  Life  and  Customs  (1899),  chs.  vi  and  vii. 
1  See  Kohler  in  Peiser's  Babylonische  Vorlrdge,  p.  xxxiv. 


Ch.  I,  §  1324     CHARACTER   OF  LOCAL  BUSINESS  361 

debtor  once  freed  from  legal  obligation.  The  rate  of 
interest,  usually  twenty  per  cent  per  annum,  was  fixed 
if  not  by  law  at  least  by  usage.  It  was  slightly  greater 
than  that  of  Athens  in  the  time  of  Demosthenes.  With- 
drawal from  bargains,  and  business  agreements  generally, 
was  made  a  matter  of  peculiar  hardship.  Nothing  speaks 
more  clearly  for  the  business  seriousness  of  this  great 
people  than  the  formal  deprecation  of  bad  faith  by  the 
parties  to  any  sort  of  contract.  In  earlier  times  the  curse 
of  the  gods  was  denounced  upon  the  covenant-breaker. 
Later,  a  binding  statement  was  frequently  added  in  the 
instrument  to  the  effect  that  the  agreement  would  not  be 
reversed.  When,  however,  the  contract  was  for  any 
reason  annulled,  the  dissident  party  paid  at  a  fixed  rate 
of  interest  for  his  release.  The  strict  observance  of 
these  principles  contributed  as  much  as  anything  else 
to  the  maintenance  of  Babylonian  domestic  institutions 
through  all  political  and  dynastic  changes. 

§  1324.  Babylonia  being  an  agricultural  country,  a  large 
proportion  of  these  business  documents  are  deeds  of  sale 
or  notes  of  hand  relative  to  products  of  the  soil.  Corn, 
dates,  date-wine,  and  onions  are  mentioned  with  special 
frequency.  Very  often  a  tenant  paj-s  the  rent  of  his  land 
in  kind,  according  to  a  minute  specification  of  the  amount 
made  in  advance  of  the  harvest.  Sometimes  there  is  merely 
an  obligation  to  furnish  a  certain  quantity  of  food  or  drink 
at  a  stated  time.  Cattle  also  figure  in  the  contracts.  A 
plantation  may  be  mortgaged  as  security  for  the  payment 
of  a  certain  amount  of  its  yield  during  a  given  year.  Cul- 
tivated and  waste  lands  on  the  banks  of  a  canal  are  leased 
for  a  long  term  of  years1  with  the  buildings  erected  there- 
upon. Trained  oxen  with  their  implements  of  irrigation 
are  hired,2  along  with  a  quantity  of  barley-seed. 


1  Sixty  years  in  PCT.  IX,  nr.  48  (§  130s.  note  , 

2  By  three  brothers  for  three  years  in  PCT.  IX,  nr.  49,  transliterated 

and  translated,  p.  39. 


362  SLAVES   AS   APPRENTICES  Book  XI 

§  1325.  Such  was  the  school  for  business  training 
afforded  to  the  Hebrews  in  captivity,  as  the}-  gradually 
adapted  themselves  to  their  new  surroundings  and  their 
proper  employments,  as  they  became  assimilated  in  outward 
conditions  to  the  native  population,  and  began  to  compete 
successfully  with  those  rivals  when  their  business  standing 
was  once  established.  Their  submission  to  those  exacting 
requirements  which  for  ages  had  closed  the  way  to  every 
talent  except  energy  and  educated  skill,  and  had  made 
difficult  the  acquiring  of  sudden  wealth  or  unlawful 
gain,  was  itself  a  priceless  and  essential  moral  discipline. 
We  must  think  of  them  not  as  unwilling  guests  or  as  tran- 
sient occupants  of  the  land,  but  as  having  at  length  fol- 
lowed the  saving  counsel  of  their  martyred  friend,  to  seek 
homes  for  themselves  in  the  country  of  their  exile,  and  to 
aid  in  its  development  and  prosperity  (§  1168). 

§  1326.  A  decisive  change  in  the  condition  of  most  of 
the  exiles  was  made  when  they  passed  from  slavery  into 
freedom.  The  system  of  Babylonian  slavery  was,  as  we 
have  seen,  favourable  to  such  an  attainment.  Special 
features  seem  to  have  been  particularly  helpful :  for  in- 
stance, the  custom  of  apprenticing  slaves  for  a  fixed  term 
of  years  to  masters  of  one  trade  or  another  (§  1280).  The 
conditions  were  specified  with  great  exactness,  with  a 
heavy  fine  for  either  party  who  should  break  the  agree- 
ment.1 We  learn  from  this  usage  how  the  owner  was  eager 
to  increase  the  value  to  himself  of  his  human  property. 

1  An  instructive  Babylonian  contract  of  the  time  of  Cyrus  —  the  contin- 
uation of  the  social  regime  now  under  consideration  —  is  explained  by 
Demuth  in  BA.  iii,  418  f.  A  certain  lady  binds  over  her  slave  to  a 
master-weaver  for  the  term  of  five  years,  she  to  feed  and  clothe  the  appren- 
tice during  that  period.  If  the  master  fails  to  teach  hi  in  properly  within 
this  time,  he  is  to  make  good  the  deficiency  by  paying  what  the  slave 
would  otherwise  have  earned  by  his  toil.  A  half-mina  (about  $22)  is 
tin'  penalty  on  either  side  for  breach  of  the  contract.  Similar  docu- 
ments  are  published  (ibid.  p.  420-422)  relating  to  apprenticeship  to  other 
occupations,  one  of  which  is  that  of  a  stone-cutter,  the  term  in  this 
instance  being  four  years. 


Ch.  I,  §1328  RESTRICTIONS    AND    LIMITS  363 

But  the  advantages  to  the  slave  were  equally  evident. 
Among  these  were  the  chances  of  his  bettering  his  estate 
after  he  should  become  master  of  the  trade. 

§  1327.  We  may  thus  see  in  the  business  and  juridi- 
cal systems  of  the  Babylonians  a  moral  agent  of  great 
value,  working  gradually  but  surely  among  the  exiles, 
promoting  their  self-respect  and  ambition,  and  their 
advancement  generally.  That  we  may  better  estimate 
its  actual  influence,  certain  observations  should  be  made 
at  this  point.  First,  all  classes  of  the  colonists  were  not 
equally  benefited  by  these  Babylonian  institutions.  The 
sequel  shows  that  while  many  Hebrews  rose  to  influence 
and  dignity  very  many  also  remained  dependent  or  ser- 
vile. It  was  apparently  this  class  that  furnished  most  of 
the  population  of  Jerusalem  under  the  Persians.  Again, 
such  a  moral  education  must  be  conceived  of  as  affecting 
the  Hebrews  not  merety  during  the  Babylonian  but  in  the 
Persian  period.  Certainly  the  most  substantial  of  the 
Hebrew  people  remained  in  Babylonia  after  the  conquest 
by  Cyrus,  and  it  was  they  who  gave  to  the  restored  Jew- 
ish community  for  the  first  two  centuries  its  moral  as  well 
as  material  backing. 

§  1328.  Further,  while  such  moral  improvement  as 
was  effected  by  Babylonian  influence  was  indispensable  to 
the  progress  of  Israel,  the  influence  thus  extended  was  not 
of  itself  a  thorough-going  instrument  of  reform.  Veracity 
and  honesty  in  business  are  rather  an  essential  stage  or 
condition  in  the  saving  of  a  people  than  a  means  of  its  sal- 
vation. The  followers  of  Confucius  are,  it  is  true,  much 
more  likely  to  be  christianized  than  those  of  Mohammed, 
for  the  reason  that  moral  teaching  pure  and  simple  is  better 
than  theological  teaching  pure  and  simple;  but  the  moral- 
ity of  the  Confucian  theory  and  practice  has  not  saved 
China  morally.  What  Israel  learned  from  Babylonia 
helped  it  towards  larger  and  truer  views  of  the  practical 
duties  of  life,  and  a  wider  and  juster  conception  of  the 
world  and  of  its  own  place  in  the  world's  future.     Beyond 


364  THE   SIX  OF  LICENTIOUSNESS  Book  XI 


this,  as  a  moral  environment,  its  educative  influence  was 
not  directly  beneficial. 

§  1329.  How  then  were  the  exiles  otherwise  affected 
by  what  they  saw  and  heard  in  Babylonia?  There  were 
certain  Babylonian  institutions  noxious  in  themselves 
which  yet  afforded  a  wholesome  discipline  to  the  Hebrew 
aliens.  These  were  vitally  bound  up  with  the  religion 
of  the  country,  and  they  told  upon  the  religious  as  well 
as  the  moral  sentiments  of  the  colonists.  This  twofold 
relation  was  at  once  the  danger  and  the  safeguard  of 
Israel.  The  chief  sources  of  peril  were  sexual  immorality 
and  idolatry.  Within  the  sphere  of  the  latter,  as  being 
closely  akin  to  false  worship,  we  may  include  magical 
superstition  for  which  Babylonia  was  notorious,  and  which 
had  already  played  a  part  in  Hebrew  social  and  religious 
history  (  §  858,  1199). 

§  1330.  Israel's  chief  safeguard  against  licentiousness 
was  the  religion  of  Jehovah.  It  was  so  foreign  to  the 
community  of  Jehovah's  people  that  unchaste  men  and 
women  were  called  "  strange "  or  illegitimate.  This 
notion  was  intensified  by  the  direct  encouragement  and 
patronage  of  sexual  indulgence  by  the  most  influential 
of  foreign  religions.  The  true  religious  teachers  in  Israel 
also  made  it  a  social  evil  as  being  a  sin  against  one's  neigh- 
bour (Ex.  xx.  17).  Sexual  vice  is  generally  but  little  re- 
strained except  when  it  is  held  to  be  not  merely  wrong  but 
irreligious.  Neither  regard  for  the  interests  of  society,  nor 
philosophical  reasoning  as  to  its  essential  hurtfulness,  can 
greatly  avail  anywhere  against  the  impetuosity  of  passion. 
There  is  in  truth  but  one  all-sufficient  and  universal  reason 
why  unchastity  is  wicked  —  that  it  is  a  form  of  selfishness, 
and  always  involves  a  disregard  of  the  rights  of  our  fellow- 
beings.  Even  the  least  frequent  offender  must  fairly 
admit  that  one  at  least  of  the  participants  is  degraded  or 
depreciated.  This  of  necessity  involves  a  lack  of  chivalry 
on  the  part  of  the  other,  and  finally  his  moral  self- 
surrender.     But  it  is  only  under  the  influence  direct  or 


Ch.  I,  §1332         CHECKS  AGAINST  ADULTERY  305 

indirect  of  religion  that  a  saving  regard  for  our  fellow- 
mortals  is  awakened  and  maintained.  We  may  ascribe 
such  regard  to  a  "  religion  of  humanity  "  when  we  will. 
But  in  the  history  of  human  society  the  restraining 
power  has  been  found  at  its  strongest  and  purest  in  the 
religion  of  the  Bible.  Proof  is  furnished  by  the  career 
of  the  Hebrew  people  themselves.  That  unchastity  was 
very  prevalent  in  Israel  up  to  the  Exile  is  shown  partly 
by  the  testimony  of  protesting  prophets  (as  far  as  Ez. 
xxxiii.  26)  and  partly  by  the  prevalence  of  "strange" 
religious  rites  of  which  such  a  form  of  immorality  was 
an  essential  and  constant  feature  (cf.  Dent,  xxiii.  18). 
After  the  Exile,  when  the  noxious  cults  had  ceased  to 
prevail,  little  complaint  is  heard. 

§  1331.  At  least  one  form  of  immorality  was  guarded 
against  with  special  care  by  the  Babylonians.  Adultery 
on  the  part  of  the  wife  was,  from  the  days  of  the  earliest 
to  those  of  the  latest  legislation,  punished  with  death,  yet 
desertion  of  the  wife  by  the  husband  entailed  merely  the 
payment  of  a  reasonable  money  compensation.1  There 
was  also  a  certain  discrimination  in  old  Hebrew  law, 
according  to  which  an  adulterer  was  not  punished  for 
the  offence  against  his  own  wife,  but  for  that  against  the 
injured  husband  (see  Deut.  xxii.  22  ff.).  Indeed,  there 
was  not  much  theoretical  difference  in  this  sphere  of  juris- 
prudence throughout  the  ancient  East.  All  the  more 
emphasis  must  accordingly  be  laid  upon  the  moral  and 
religious  training  of  the  chosen  people. 

§  1332.  Wifely  fidelity  was  thus  well  conserved  in 
Babylonia.      But,    on    the    other   hand,    prostitution    was 


'SeeVR.  25,  1-7  ab  (AL»,  p.  L31)  for  early  Babylonian  usage  (cf. 
Delitzsch  in  BA.  IV,  85  f.),  and  Eor  the  time  of  Nebuchadrezzar  II.  Bee 

the  raarriag* ntracl  published  by  Strassmaier,  and  explained  by  Marx. 

BA.  IV.  7.  In  the  former  instance  the  unfaithful  wife  was  to  be  thrown 
into  a  river  or  canal,  and  the  husband  to  pay  a  half-mina of  silver ;  in  the 
latter  the  wife  was  to  be  slain  with  an  iron  dagger,  and  the  husband  to  pay 
six  silver  minas. 


366  BABYLONIAN  PROSTITUTION  Book  XI 

extensive  and  fashionable.  In  the  first  place,  it  was  indi- 
rectly but  greatly  promoted  by  the  social  system.  One  of 
the  most  numerous  classes  of  the  contract  tablets  are  the 
marriage  covenants,1  in  which  the  principal  matter  is  the 
settlement  of  the  amount  of  the  dowry  with  strict  engage- 
ments for  its  payment  under  carefully  stipulated  penalties 
in  view  of  possible  withdrawal.  Marriage  was  thus  sel- 
dom a  matter  of  sentiment.  The  consequences  in  the 
depreciation  of  female  virtue  were  what  they  have  been 
everywhere  else  where  marriage  has  been  made  a  con- 
venience. Again,  in  the  cities  of  Babylonia  prostitution 
was  encouraged  by  a  religious  sanction,  which  also  gave 
countenance  and  character  to  the  usage,  even  when  it 
was  carried  on  professionally  and  publicly2  apart  from 
the  associations  of  religion.  But  when  such  indulgences 
took  the  aspect  of  sacrifices  to  the  goddess  of  Nature 
(cf.  §  1188  f.),  they  were  immensely  promoted  by  official 
patronage.  The  fees  received  by  the  female  votaries  as 
servant-maids  of  their  respective  temples  were  handed 
over  to  the  sacred  treasury  and  augmented  the  priestly 
revenues.  It  has.  indeed,  been  general^  believed  upon 
the  statement  of  Herodotus  that  every  Babylonian  woman 
was  obliged  once  in  her  life  to  appear  in  the  temple  of 
Ishtar  and  play  the  role  of  the  professional  votary  of  the 
goddess.3  But  a  slight  acquaintance  with  Babylonian  life 
would  show  an}-  one  the  absurdity  of  this  belief.     Such 

1  See  especially  Marx  in  BA.  IV,  13-39. 

-  Those  who  pursued  their  vocation  on  the  public  streets  (see  V  R.  25, 
7,  8,  cd)  were  still  regarded  as  sacred  prostitutes,  just  as  in  the  instance 
recorded  in  Gen.  xxxviii.  14  ff. ,  where  the  fee  of  a  kid  indicates  the  asso- 
ciation with  the  impure  goddess  (cf.  Dillmannonv.  17).  From  the  two 
following  lines  in  V  R.  it  would  seem  that  such  persons  were  eligible  for 
marriage.  The  word  used  is  the  same  as  that  in  Gen.  xxxviii.  21  (see 
§  1190).  But  all  the  names  applied  to  prostitutes  in  Assyrian,  unlike  the 
Hebrew  rmr,  were  given  to  them  in  their  character  of  religious  devotees. 

3  See  Her.  I,  199.  It  may  seem  strange  that  Herodotus,  who  had  been 
in  Babylon,  could  have  been  so  grossly  deceived.  But  he  was  not  allowed 
(as  an  alien)  to  visit  the  interior  of  the  shrines  (I,  183),  and  indeed  he 
has  very  little  to  say  of  the  sacred  mysteries  generally. 


Ch.  I,  §  1334  A   MORAL    REVULSION  367 

compulsory  degradation  is  inconsistent  with  what  we  know 
of  the  position  accorded  to  woman  in  Babylonia.  The 
assertion  has  not  a  particle  of  monumental  evidence  to 
support  it.1  But  that  it  had  credence  in  its  time  serves 
to  show  how  far  the  custom  of  which  it  was  a  carica- 
ture had  been  carried  in  wealthy,  luxurious,  and  devout 
Babylonia. 

§  1333.  Of  such  abuses  the  Hebrews  had  known  enough 
and  more  in  the  home-land  (§  1190).  But  their  point 
of  view  was  now  different,  and  the  system  itself  was  not 
the  same.  For  although  the  indulgence  of  lust  in  the 
name  of  religion  was  sometimes  permitted  at  local  shrines, 
or  even  in  the  central  sanctuary,  the  practice  was  thought 
of  by  the  people  at  large  as  either  a  phase  or  an  abuse  of 
the  national  worship.  Here,  however,  it  appeared  to  be 
the  direct  outgrowth  of  an  alien  religion,  a  religion,  more- 
over, which  flaunted  itself  everywhere  as  the  badge  and 
boast  of  their  conquerors.  The  system  came  to  be  a  direct 
demonstration  of  the  baleful  effect  of  the  worship  of  alien 
gods,  since  in  Babylonia  immorality  seemed  to  be  made 
the  special  property  of  the  state  and  of  the  state  religion. 

§  1334.  Such  a  wholesome  revulsion  of  sentiment  was 
in  its  measure  both  cause  and  effect  of  an  inward  revolt 
against  the  Babylonian  religion,  which  led  finally  to  a 
renunciation  of  non-Israelitish  worship  generally.  For  the 
Hebrews  in  Palestine  were  still  followers  of  Jehovah,  even 
while  they  joined  in  the  political  recognition  of  the  su- 
premacy of  the  gods  of  Assyria  and  Babylonia  or  had  resort 
in  times  of  extreme  distress  to  Canaanitic  superstition 
(§  1183).  Above  all,  their  daily  life  in  the  home-land  had 
been  largely  made  up  of  religious  usages  whose  dominant 
motive  was  the  acknowledgment  of  Jehovah  by  prayer 
and  sacrifice.  Here  not  only  the  objects  but  the  forms 
and  modes  of  worship  were  entirely  changed.     They  saw 


1  On  the  contrary,  many  extant  contracts  imply  freedom  from  such 
reproach  on  the  part  of  those  offered  in  marriage. 


308  THE    WORD   OF    PROPHECY  Book  XI 

the  religion  of  their  conquerors  enthroned  in  its  undis- 
puted realm.  They  were  unable  either  to  understand  or 
to  participate  in  its  complicated  ritual;  and  were  at  the 
same  time  cut  off  from  that  observance  of  their  own  rites 
and  ceremonies,  which  had  been  the  habit,  and,  with  all 
its  abuses,  the  inspiration  of  their  lives. 

§  1335.  Strictly  speaking,  we  must  regard  the  condi- 
tions just  spoken  of  as  not  causes  but  occasions.  The 
main  influence  was  still  as  ever  the  prophetic  teaching. 
And  even  now,  had  prophetic  direction  been  absent,  those 
very  impressions  would  have  led  not  to  an  exclusive  faith 
in  Jehovah,  but  to  a  state  of  practical  godlessness,  which 
would  ultimately  have  resulted  in  an  absorption  into  the 
Chaldaean  religion.  But  here  everything  favoured  the 
cause  of  the  nation's  true  God.  The  testimony  of  his 
advocates  in  the  past  was  on  record.  The  gathered  litera- 
ture of  Israel,  which  now  at  length  came  to  have  a  sacred 
character  as  the  relic  and  symbol  of  a  national  hope  and 
purpose,  appealed  to  minds  and  consciences  which  were 
formerly  closed  to  it  through  perversion  or  indifference. 
What  struck  most  powerfully  was  that  which  was  most 
relevant.  The  protests  against  idolatry,  the  denunciations 
and  appeals  of  Amos,  Hosea,  Isaiah,  and  Micah,  the  com- 
mands and  proclamations  of  Deuteronomy  (vi.  4 ;  vii.  9), 
now  fell  upon  attentive  ears ;  and  along  with  the  written 
went  the  living  word  proclaimed  by  the  living  voice. 

§  133G.  The  preachers  were,  in  the  first  generation  of 
the  Exile,  disciples  of  Jeremiah  with  Ezekiel  himself  and  his 
followers.  In  the  second  period  others  came  forward,  of  a 
new  and  larger  school  (§  1401  ff.).  And  never  did  preach- 
ers have  a  better  text.  The  labourers  at  the  close  of  the 
day,  wearied  by  servile  toil,  and  sore  with  the  galling  sense 
of  loss  and  a  broken  destiny,  were  in  themselves  a  challenge 
to  the  prophets  to  take  up  their  parable.1    The  whole  situa- 

1  Notice  that  in  Ezekiel  the  exiles  are  represented  as  being  willing  to 
listen  to  the  words  of  the  prophet,  though  at  first  they  would  give  no  heed 
(iii.  7)  and  complained  that  he  spoke  in  figures  (xx.  49).     Significantly 


Ch.  I,  §  1337  JEHOVAH   IN   BABYLONIA  369 

tion  compelled  inquiry.  The  supreme  calamity  had  fallen. 
The  earlier  captives  were  not  restored  as  had  been  hoped, 
and  the  coup  de  grace  had  been  given  to  their  country 
in  the  captivity  of  their  brethren.  They  were  given  leave 
to  live  in  a  strange  land  ;  but  nearly  all  that  made  life 
worth  the  living  was  gone,  —  home  and  the  home-land,  the 
scenes  and  associations  of  earlier  life,  temple,  altars,  the 
very  means  and  motive  of  religion.  It  became  a  question 
whether  indeed  they  had  or  had  ever  had  a  God  worthy  of 
their  regard.  The  gods  of  Babylonia  might  be  monstrous 
and  strange,  but  they  were  at  least  gods  that  could  help 
their  followers.  What  had  Jehovah  done  for  his  people 
in  their  hour  of  need  ? 

§  1337.  This  dilemma  was  the  opportunity  of  the  proph- 
ets, who  had  now  become  pastors  and  watchmen  for  souls 
(Ez.  ii.  17  ff. ;  xxxiii.  2  ff.).  The  case  of  the  common  man 
was  this.  He  had  thought  of  his  Jehovah  as  a  god  of 
Israel  not  merely  in  the  national  but  in  the  local  sense. 
Even  the  first  band  of  exiles,  in  expecting  restoration  to 
Palestine  (§  1169),  looked  forward  to  coming  again  under 
his  direct  protection.  After  the  second  captivity  the 
whole  colon}-  thought  of  Jehovah  as  still  being  in  Pales- 
tine, where  indeed  an  attempt  was  made  to  continue  his 
worship  (§  1244).  But  this  was  a  vague  and  dishearten- 
ing belief.  Their  teachers  must  now  make  them  know 
and  feel  that  their  own  God  was  in  Babylonia,  indeed  more 
really  in  Babylonia  than  in  Judah.  But  could  it  be  so  ? 
Could  a  deity  dwell  where  he  could  not  be  worshipped,  on 
an  alien  and  hostile  soil?  Yes,  he  dwells  wherever  his 
presence  is  felt.  And  he  could  prove  his  presence  first  of 
all  through  the  sense  of  his  power.  But  if  he  had  been 
as  powerful  as  the  gods  of  Babylon,  would  his  people  have 
been  vanquished  and  exiled?  This  was  the  old  inveterate 
enigma,  and   now  was   the   time    t<>   resolve    it.     Yes,  for 

they  are  described  just  after  the  fall  of  Jerusalem  as  being  stirred  by  his 
words  and  eager  to  !>•  ar  more  of  them  |  xxxiii.  :]0  f.)  while  the  prospect 

of  impressing  them  finally  is  more  favourable  (v.  33). 


370  JEHOVAH'S   CLAIMS   VINDICATED  Book  XI 

what  if  he  had  chosen  to  let  his  people  be  conquered  and 
even  dragged  away  from  their  own  and  his  own  land  into 
this  very  region  of  the  earth  ?  Did  he  not  do  so  ?  This 
present  captivity  was  foretold  by  a  succession  of  his  pro- 
fessed spokesmen,  whose  authority  was  now  vindicated 
by  the  event.  One  decisive  step  further  was  taken,  in 
some  such  fashion  as  this  :  "  Might  not  such  a  God,  who 
evidently  has  an  interest  in  Babylonia,  wield  some  power 
also  in  Babylonia,  or  possibly  even  over  Babylonia  ?  Surely. 
Did  not  Jeremiah,  whom  we  thought  a  fanatic  and  a  traitor, 
always  say  that  Nebuchadrezzar  was  the  servant  of 
Jehovah,  to  do  his  work  in  our  punishment  and  banish- 
ment? So  far,  at  least,  he  spoke  truth.  Here  we  are, 
as  he  foretold,  without  our  temple,  our  altars,  our  vine 
and  fig  trees.  But  Jeremiah  said,  and  Ezekiel  says, 
that  this  is  only  part  of  his  work,  that  in  the  fulness  of 
time,  but  not  at  once,  He  will  restore  us  to  our  land 
and  our  city.  We  have  been  forced  to  believe  the 
harder  part  of  the  prediction.  Perhaps  the  easier  part 
may  also  come  to  pass.  But  only  so  if  our  God  is 
here  with  us." 

§  1338.  By  some  such  reasonable  process  the  sense  of 
the  truth  of  things  spread  in  ever  widening  circles.  And 
thus  was  gradually  popularized  in  this  remnant  of  Israel 
the  notion  of  God's  spirituality  and  omnipresence,  of  his 
moral  supremacy,  of  his  singular  providence  and  purpose. 
Practically  the  exiles  became  monotheists,  like  the  line 
of  prophets  whom  they  could  now  trace  from  Moses  down- 
wards. There  was  much  difficulty  and  delay  and  bitter 
disappointment.  Some  perhaps  were  beyond  the  reach  of 
persuasion  ;  others  through  perversity  or  under  false  leader- 
ship lapsed  into  the  idol-worship  of  the  environment.  How 
the  seductions  of  Babylonian  worship  became  more  power- 
ful within  the  very  centre  of  the  colony  we  learn  from  a 
later  prophet  of  the  Exile  (sec  Isa.  xl.  20 f.;  xliv.  12-20). 
The  process  of  education  was  slow  and  gradual,  but  there- 
fore all  the  surer  and  more  thorough. 


Ch.  I,  §1340  INDIVIDUALISM  371 

§  1339.  This  popular  enlightenment  on  the  vital  ques- 
tion of  true  and  false  deities  and  the  activity  and  power  of 
the  God  of  Israel,  was  monumental  in  the  history  of  religion 
as  the  first  example  of  the  influence  of  "  Scripture  "  upon  a 
whole  community.  Progress  having  thus  begun,  an  advance 
was  made  in  actual  religious  knowledge  and  in  the  reli- 
gious life.  Prophetic  reflection  and  teaching  tended  now, 
as  before,  to  two  great  ends  of  Revelation, —  a  knowledge 
of  the  true  relation  of  the  individual  soul  to  God,  and  a 
right  conception  of  the  character  of  God  himself  and  his 
relation  to  his  people  and  to  the  world.  The  former,  which 
concerns  us  most  at  this  point,  was  prepared  for  mainly 
through  personal  trial,  which  brought  the  sufferers  near  to 
God  for  help.  The  earlier  stages  in  this  training  in  spirit- 
ual individualism  have  been  already  traced  (§  GOT  ff.,  987 
f.,  1009  ff.,  102.5,  1204).  It  now  remains  to  indicate  some 
of  the  ways  in  which  the  experiences  of  exile  promoted  the 
sense  of  a  personal  relation  to  Jehovah. 

§  1340.  The  old  popular  conception  is  familiar  to  us. 
The  community,  that  is  to  say  the  nation  as  a  whole, 
claimed  Jeliovah  as  its  protector  and  gave  Him  homage 
and  service.  The  ties  that  bound  God  and  people  together 
were  the  national  modes  of  outward  worship,  tending  to 
uniformity  and  finally  unified  in  the  reform  of  Josiah. 
Thus  Deuteronomy,  while  promoting  individualism  by  in- 
culcating holiness  towards  God,  actually  prejudiced  it  by 
the  concentration  of  worship  and  the  wide  extension  of  a 
single  type  of  ritual.  Moreover,  the  renewal  of  the  cove- 
nant in  Deuteronomy  was  for  and  with  the  nation  as  a 
whole.  However  we  may  deplore  the  abandonment  of  the 
ubook  of  direction  "  by  the  successors  of  Josiah,  we  must 
find  some  compensation  in  the  march  of  events  that  shat- 
tered its  practical  logic  while  they  strengthened  its  spirit- 
ual lessons  and  appeals.  For  if  Jehovah  was  the  God  of 
his  people  in  Babylonia,  their  relation  to  him  must  be 
different  from  that  assumed  in  all  previous  current  con- 
ceptions.     Here   they  were  not  a  people  at  all  except  in 


372  A   PERSONAL   EXPERIENCE  Book  XI 

precarious  continuity  with  an  eventful  past.  They  were 
scattered  in  broken  and  helpless  bands  of  captives,  with 
none  of  the  means  or  appliances  of  worship  indispensable 
to  the  winning  of  God's  favour  and  inseparable  from  his 
self-revelation.  And  yet  lie  had  shown  that  lie  was  with 
them  still  (§  1337).  And  having  felt  his  presence  among 
them  even  there,  they  could  not  but  reflect  upon  the  new 
situation.  The  thought  of  each  serious  man  was  perhaps 
such  as  this  :  "  The  nation  is  gone  :  then  Jehovah  must  be 
something  more  than  the  God  of  the  nation.  The  tribes, 
clans,  families,  are  all  broken  up :  then  He  is  not  merely 
a  God  of  tribes  and  families.  Then  He  must  be  my  own 
God."  Many  a  poor  soul,  in  its  baffled  longings  for  the 
courts  of  Jehovah,  doubtless  at  length  was  able  to  say  in 
the  spirit  of  the  psalmist  (Ps.  xliii.  3  f.)  what  he  could  not 
have  said  before  his  banishment:  — 

"Send  forth  thy  light  and  thy  truth; 
Let  them  lead  me  ; 
Let  them  bring  me  to  thy  holy  hill 
And  to  thy  tabernacles  ; 
Then  will  I  go  to  the  altar  of  God, 
To  God,  the  gladness  of  my  joy." 

§  1341.  This  idea  of  God's  direct  relation  to  the  indi- 
vidual soul,  like  that  of  his  spirituality  (§  1338),  was 
nothing  new  in  Israel.  Did  not  the  prophets  in  ever 
increasing  measure  realize  it  and  live  by  it?  But  the 
j>rophets  were  always  singular.  It  was  the  work  of  the 
Exile  out  of  their  gold  to  make  current  coin.  This  coin, 
to  be  sure,  had  much  alloy  in  it  from  the  soil  of  Canaan 
and  Babylonia.  One  cannot  but  think  of  Jeremiah,  who 
first  crave  articulate  utterance  to  the  doctrine  of  individual 
responsibility  (xxxi.  30).  We  have  just  spoken  of  the 
renewal  of  the  national  covenant  (§  1340).  We  remem- 
ber how  Jeremiah  was  summoned  to  proclaim  it  to  his 
people  (Jer.  xi.  2).  And  we  have  seen  how  out  of  sym- 
pathy he  was  with  form  and  ritual  (§  1068).  It  is, 
therefore,  in  keeping  with    his  character  and  ideals  that 


Ch.  I,  §  1342  TEACHING   OF   EZEKIEL  373 

he  should  conceive  of  a  new  and  profounder  spiritual 
relation.  "  See,  the  days  are  coming,  saith  Jehovah,  when 
I  shall  make  a  new  covenant  with  the  house  of  Israel 
and  the  house  of  Judah.  ...  I  will  put  my  law  in  their 
inmost  being,  and  in  their  heart  will  I  write  it1  .  .  ." 
(xxxi.  31  ff.).  Such  a  thought  was  not  transcended  by 
any  successor  until  the  days  of  the  Christ,  who  also 
brought  about  its  fulfilment. 

§  1342.  Yet  when  Ezekiel  elaborates  the  idea  of  in- 
dividual responsibility  (§  1204  f.),  his  vivid  and  ample 
illustration  makes  a  weightier  impression  than  the  brief 
declaration  of  his  master.2  The  sense  of  God's  nearness 
to  the  several  members  of  his  community  ("all  souls  are 
mine,*'  v.  4)  and  of  their  consequent  responsibility,  seems 
more  sure  and  real  in  the  concrete  presentation  of  the 
later  prophet.  Practically  Ezekiel  did  his  best  work  for 
his  own  time  and  people  in  his  much-needed  application 
of  this  doctrine,  in  asserting  and  reiterating  (ch.  xxxiii.) 
that  the  children  should  not  suffer  for  the  sins  of  the 
fathers,  that  every  man  should  "  die "  through  his  own 
sins,  or  "  live "  through  his  own  righteousness.  The 
notion  was  natural  to  men  not  yet  half  emerged  from 
tribalism  that  the  solidarity  of  the  family  from  the  first 
ancestor  downward  involved  the  inheritance  of  sin  and 
its  punishment.  And  now  that  the  acme  of  suffering 
and  chastisement  had  been  reached,  they  could  not  but 
regard  their  lot  as  the  consequence  both  of  their  own 
offences  and  of  those  of  their  fathers.  However  imper- 
fectly Ezekiel  may  have  conceived  of  the  actual  conse- 
quences to  men  of  the  sins  of  the  past,  he  ranks  high  as 
a  friend  of  humanity  in  helping  to  rid  men  of  a  belief 
in  imputed  guilt  and  predestined  doom,  —  the  awful  bug- 
bear of  ancient  tribalistic  superstition  and  of  modern 
scholastic  theology.     That  he  concerned  himself  so  greatly 

1  Cf.  Pb.  xl.  8  (EV\).  This  psalm  is  largely  a  reflex  of  the  experiences 
of  Jeremiah. 

2  Cf.  Skinner,  The  Book  of  Ezekiel,  p.  144  f. 


374  RITUALISM   OF   EZEKIEL  Book  XI 

with  this  question  of  the  moral  life  and  fate  of  men  betrays 
his  intense  sympathy  with  his  people,  intellectual  and 
spiritual.  He  was,  perhaps,  the  first  prophet  to  whom 
was  committed,  in  the  ecelesiastical  sense,  "the  cure  of 
souls ; " *  and  it  was  the  Exile  that  gave  him  his  parish. 

§  1343.  Yet  it  was  inevitable  that  Ezekiel  should 
work  more  for  the  community  than  for  the  individual, 
not  merely  because  he  was  the  child  of  his  time  and 
environment,  but  also  by  virtue  of  native  and  pro- 
fessional bias.  His  sympathy  with  Jeremiah  in  moral 
teaching,  and  his  unlikeness  to  him  in  intellectual  tastes 
and  habits,  we  have  already  indicated  (§  1174).  No 
better  suggestion  can  be  given  of  the  dominant  purpose 
of  his  life  and  ministry  than  to  say  that  it  was  the  con- 
tinuation and  adaptation  of  Deuteronomy.  What  Josiah 
and  his  men  did  in  their  time  and  measure  for  the  later 
kingdom  of  Judah,  Ezekiel  sought  to  effect  for  the 
exiled  community.  His  aims  were  practical  and  definite. 
He  knew  that  without  rites  and  ceremonies  at  holy  places 
his  Israel  could  not  permanently  survive.  But  he  had 
to  labour  in  an  ideal  region,  for  the  essential  conditions 
of  the  historic  ritual  were  now  wholly  wanting. 

§  1344.  This  spirit  in  Ezekiel  is  shown  in  a  deference 
to  legal  prescriptions  and  ritual  obligations,  such  as  the 
earlier  prophets  had  not  displayed  (iv.  14 ;  v.  11  ;  xviii.  6 ; 
xx.  12  ;  xxiii.  38  et  a?.).  His  ritualistic  proclivities  come 
out  most  clearly  in  the  latest  section  of  his  book  (chs.  xl.— 
xlviii.).  There  he  describes  the  restored  and  purified 
theocracy ;  and  he  does  not  refer  to  its  moral  and  spiritual 
basis,  but  dwells  upon  its  constitution  and  its  modes  of 
worship.  He  describes  the  new  temple  (xl.-xliii.)  with  its 
courts  and  gates  and  chambers  (ctr.  Jer.  iii.  16).  This  is 
the  single  sanctuary  of  Deuteronomy.  But  he  goes  beyond 
Deuteronomy  in  restricting  the  priesthood  not  to  the  Le- 
vites,  but  to  the  family  of  Zadok  alone  (ch.  xliv.).     He 

1  Renan,  Histoire  du  peitple  d' Israel,  III,  395. 


Oh.  I,  §  1345        THE   PERMANENT   IX   RELIGION  375 

allots  lands  to  the  priests  near  the  temple  (ch.  xlv.).  The 
civil  ruler  is  to  make  it  his  main  business  to  look  after 
the  sacrifices  (ch.  xlvi.).  He  also  prescribes  for  the  ob- 
servance of  feasts,  and  for  a  lustration  of  the  temple  at  the 
opening  of  the  year  (ch.  xlv.  18  f.).1  And  he  divides  up 
the  Holy  Land  into  parallel  sections  from  the  Jordan  to 
the  sea  (ch.  xlvii.  13-xlviii.  29)  .2 

§  1345.  This  vision  of  the  new  Jerusalem  was  seen  in 
the  twenty-fifth  year  of  the  prophet's  exile,  and  his  only 
subsequent  utterance  (xxix.  17  ff.)  was  made  two  years 
later  (570  B.C.).  His  ministry  thus  almost  covers  the 
earlier  half  of  the  Captivity.  At  its  close  the  moral  and 
religious  bent  and  tendency  of  the  exiles  were  pretty  well 
determined.  Temptations  to  idolatry  had  now  done  their 
worst,  though  they  were  ever  present  (§  1338).  The  test- 
ing and  fashioning  of  character  was  a  long  and  complex 
process.  What  Ezekiel  says  of  the  condition  of  his  people 
comes  in  the  form  of  objurgations,  and  is  to  be  understood 
as  representing  the  most  unfavourable  view.  As  helpful 
influences,  we  must  count  not  merely  the  slow-acting  moral 
forces  that  entered  into  their  discipline  (§  1314  ff.),  but 
also  the  permanent  elements  of  the  old  religion.  These 
now  became  doubly  valuable.  The  sabbath  could  not  be 
made  a  sacred  feast-da}r ;  but  it  could  still  be  a  day  of  con- 
vocation, with  a  more  direct  and  heartfelt  worship.  The 
priest  might  not  present  the  worshipper's  offering  to  Jeho- 
vah ;  but  a  richer  blessing  came  from  an  answer  to  direct 
personal  prayer.  While  the  priest,  as  a  living  personal 
influence,  became  less  and  less,  the  prophet  became  more 
and  more,  till  the  acme  of  prophecy  was  reached  in  the 


1  That  is.  on  the  first  of  Nisan,  in  conformity  with  Babylonian  usage. 
The  old  Hebrew  year  began  in  autumn  (Ex.  xxiii.  1G  ;  xxxiv.  22).  This 
usage  continued  to  the  end  of  the  kingdom,  as  we  learn  from  the  fact  that 
the  feast  of  the  Passover  was  celebrated  in  the  same  year  as  that  in  which 
"  the  book  of  direction  "  was  found  (§  852).  The  post-exilic  date  of  Ex. 
xii.  2  may  be  inferred  from  this  facl  alone. 

2  Uomp.  Marti,  Geschichte  der  israel.  Religion  (1897),  p.  204  ff. 


376  SABBATH   OF   THE    EXILE  Book  XI 

Second  Isaiah.  While  the  living  prophetic  word  was 
presumably  also  present  in  the  middle  years  of  the  Exile, 
the  written  word  was  prized,  and  was  read  and  expounded 
also  in  the  sabbath  assemblies. 

§  1346.  Too  much  can  scarcely  be  made  of  the  sabbath 
of  the  Exile.  Whatever  we  may  think  of  its  earlier  ob- 
servance,1 it  certainly  became  henceforth  a  more  than 
theoretical  or  formal  holy  day.  It  was  also  a  Babylonian 
institution.  In  this  possibly  lay  a  peril,  but  one  not  so 
great  as  we  might  imagine  ;  for  Israel  was  cut  off  from  its 
celebration  as  an  alien  rite,  while  the  moral  force  of  its 
weekly  recognition  by  the  ruling  people  of  the  world  re- 
mained unaffected.  It  is  quite  possible  that  it  was  recog- 
nized as  having  been  a  sacred  season  common  to  the  two 
peoples  in  remotest  antiquity.  As  the  Hebrews  necessa- 
rily conformed  their  calendar  to  that  of  the  people  of  the 
land  (cf.  §  1344),  they  may  also  have  adopted  the  same 
sabbath  days,  the  seventh,  fourteenth,  twenty-first,  and 
twenty-eighth  of  the  month.  The  Assyrian  and  Babylon- 
ian sabbath  seems    to  have  been  practically  a  fast-day,2 

1  In  Hosea  ii.  13  (EV.  11)  the  sabbath  appears  as  a  day  of  "enjoy- 
ment." This  accords  with  its  statutory  recognition  as  a  "breathing- 
spell  "  (^o:\  Ex.  xxiii.  12).  The  idea  of  rest  and  refreshing  is,  however, 
secondary,  as  the  root  row  properly  means  to  "  cease  "  (cf.  the  Assyrian 
usage  as  synonym  of  gamaru).  This  original  sense  of  "  quitting,"  came 
naturally  to  be  applied  to  cessation  from  normal  activity.  The  proscrip- 
tion of  regular  work  (Ex.  xvi.  4  f.  JE.)  was  extended  to  trading  (Am. 
viii.  o).  Like  the  new  moon  celebration,  also  a  day  of  enjoyment  (Hos. 
I.e.),  it  became  a  time  of  religious  gathering  where  oracles  might  be  con- 
sulted (2  K.  iv.  23). 

2  The  essential  facts  regarding  this  sabbath  are  the  following :  The 
word  itself  (Sapattu)  occurs,  so  far,  but  once  (in  II  R.  16,  32  ab)  in  the 
Assyrio-Baby Ionian  monuments.  It  is  explained  there  as  "  the  day  for 
quieting  the  heart,"  a  common  phrase  for  propitiating  (the  gods).  But 
in  IV  R.  32  there  is  given  a  hemerology  of  the  month  Elul  (September),  in 
which  it  is  said  that  on  the  days  above  mentioned  (and  also  on  the  nine- 
teenth) the  "  shepherd  of  many  peoples  "  (that  is.  the  king  as  representing 
the  people,  like  the  "prince"  in  Ez.  xlv.  22  ff. )  should  eat  no  flesh 
roasted  in  the  coals,  and  no  food  that  had  come  in  contact  with  lire, 
should  not  change  his  clothes  nor  wear  a  white  garment,  or  yoke  (?)  a- 


Ch.  I,  §  1348  THE   BABYLONIAN   SABBATH  :!77 

whose  observance  was  guarded  with  extraordinary  strict- 
ness. This  may  help  to  explain  the  fact  that  during-  and 
after  the  Exile  the  Hebrew  sabbath  was  also  more  rigor- 
ously observed  as  a  day  of  rest  and  abstinence. 

§  1347.  But  the  Babylonian  sabbath  was  of  importance 
to  the  Hebrews  mainly  because  it  afforded  them  the  needed 
opportunities  for  the  cultivation  of  the  religious  life. 
Their  religion,  being  of  a  social  character,  was  chiefly  pro- 
moted by  stated  meetings.  As  slaves,  the  greater  number 
of  them  had  no  opportunity  of  assembling  either  in  large 
or  small  groups  for  any  formal  purpose,  except  when  leis- 
ure was  granted  to  them  in  consequence  of  general  social 
and  industrial  usage.  Now  if  the  employing  and  employed 
classes  both  observed  the  same  day  of  rest,  the  opportunity 
came  of  itself.  The  sabbath  meetings  would  thus  be  the 
chief  occasion  of  religious  development. 

§  1348.  The  main  determining  factor  was  the  felt  needs 
of  the  community.  In  view  of  past  failures  and  present 
distress,  the  ruin  of  Jerusalem  and  the  banishment  and 
shame,  the  former  mirth  of  the  sacred  feasts  would  give 
place  to  sighing  and  weeping.  The  situation  and  the  mood 
itself  are  set  forth  by  one  of  the  surviving  worshippers  in 
immortal  verse  (Ps.  cxxxvii.)  :  — 


chariot,  or  speak  with  authority  (that  is,  officially)  ;  that  no  seer  should 
give  an  oracle  in  a  secret  place  ;  that  no  physician  should  minister  (bring 
his  hand)  to  a  sick  person.  Each  of  these  days  is  described  as  "  baleful  " 
(limnu).  But  this  apparently  means  that  it  is  unlucky  to  do  any  ordi- 
nary work  on  that  day.  We  have  here  a  Pharisaic  strictness  of  observance. 
Though  the  word  ''sabbath"  is  not  vised,  it,  is  plain  that  it  is   intended. 

This  is  shown  by  its  hebdomadal  recurrence  as  well  as  by  the  character  of 
its  prohibitions.     So  far  only  the  ancient  Hebrews  and  Assyrio-Babylon- 

ians  arc  proved  to  have  had  the  sabbath,  though  the  new  moon  was  cele- 
brated by  all  the  Semites.  The  current  view  that  the  Hebrews  learned 
the  custom  from  the  Canaanites  {e.g.,  Smend,  Alttesb.  Eeligionsgeschichte, 

p.  b°.!))  is  a  mere  assumption.  The  week  of  seven  days  was  based  upon 
the  four  phases  of  the  moon  ;  but  the  religious  use  of  the  seventh  day  is 
quite  distinct  from  this  division.  This  institution  of  the  sabbath  is  the 
strongest  single  evidence  of  a  close  connection  between  the  earliest 
Hebrews  and  Babylonia. 


:378  SACRED   ASSEMBLIES  Book  XI 

••  By  the  stream  of  Babylonia  there  we  sat  down; 
We  wept,  too,  as  we  thought  of  Zion. 
On  the  willows  in  the  midst  thereof 
We  hung  u]>  our  lyres. 

For  there  our  captors  asked  of  us  words  of  song, 
And  our  spoilers  !  words  of  mirth: 
'  Sing  to  us  of  the  songs  of  Zion.' 
How  shall  we  sing  Jehovah's  songs  on  an  alien  soil?" 

Such  days  of  assembly  were  days  of  fasting,  humiliation, 
and  prayer.  Every  religion  takes  its  complexion  from 
the  temper  and  circumstances  of  its  first  worshippers ; 
and  the  Jewish,  as  distinct  from  the  old  Hebrew  type 
of  religion,  owes  much  of  its  sombre  aspect  and  plain- 
tive tone  to  the  habits  and  associations  of  the  exiles  in 
Babylonia.  Such  a  tone  and  temper  have  been,  perhaps, 
more  of  a  grain  than  a  loss  to  Judaism.  Nothing;  binds 
men  together  like  the  remembrance  of  common  suffering 
kept  alive  by  a  perpetual  memorial.  From  the  Exile 
came  forth  the  Synagogue. 

§  1349.  Thus  were  laid  among  the  exiles  the  founda- 
tions of  a  new  religious  community.  What  threatened 
to  destroy  the  kingdom  of  Jehovah  proved  the  best  pos- 
sible means  of  its  restoration.  The  sifting  process  was 
long,  of  which  Amos  had  spoken  (ix.  9)  ;  and  after  much 
chaff  had  fallen,  to  be  absorbed  by  the  "-alien  soil,"  not 
all  of  the  grain  that  remained  was  found  good  and 
worthy.  But  the  good  was  of  the  choicest  known  in  all 
God's  husbandry.  Only  the  most  strenuous  and  patient 
could  endure  the  strain  on  faith  and  hope.  Only  the  most 
ardent  and  loyal  could  hold  to  the  promise  of  Jeremiah 
or  be  sustained  by  the  visions  of  Ezekiel.  But  the 
work  in  heart  and  conscience  was  done  as  never  before  or 
after  in  Israel's  history.  Self-searching,  reflection,  intrepid 
devotion,  reached  forth  after  a  God  who  was  not  very  far 
off,  and  found  him  to  be  nearer  at  hand  than  he  had 
ever  been  in  the  temple  or   by  the  altars  of    Jerusalem. 

1  A  slight  emendation  (n  for  t)  after  the  Targum. 


Ch.  I,  §  1340  MARKS   OF   PROGRESS  379 

Moral  steadfastness,  always  the  most  authentic  warrant 
of  inner  convictions,  here  made  assurance  doubly  sure.  As 
the  resultant  of  the  working  of  these  forces  of  mind  and 
soul,  two  great  facts  were  projected  clear  and  full  before 
the  spiritual  gaze.  There  was  an  Israel  left,  a  people  of 
Jehovah  ;  and  Jehovah  was  here  among  his  people.  Thus 
the  great  word  of  Jeremiah  was  being  fulfilled  (§  1341). 


CHAPTER   II 

HEBREW   LITERATURE   OF   THE   EXILE 

§  1350.  The  Exile  was  perhaps  the  period  of  great- 
est literary  activity  in  the  history  of  Israel.  It  certainly 
made  a  literary  epoch  of  unequalled  importance.  This 
intellectual  movement  was  in  part  due  to  inner  develop- 
ment, in  part  to  the  effect  of  the  environment.  In  the 
first  place,  with  the  passing  away  of  the  kingdom,  there 
arose  a  desire  to  collect  and  arrange  the  records  of  the 
past,  as  well  as  the  scattered  fragments  of  its  literature. 
Then  came  the  work  of  the  reforming  school,  which 
reasserted  itself  in  the  Exile  after  its  policy  had  been 
vindicated  by  events.  In  its  interest,  earlier  documents 
were  edited,  remodelled,  and  supplemented,  so  as  to  bring 
them  into  accord  with  the  teachings  of  history  and  provi- 
dence. Of  spontaneous  literary  work,  that  of  projecting 
a  new  ritual  for  the  future  restored  Israel,  was  of  epoch- 
making  significance.  Nor  did  the  living  words  of  proph- 
ecy fail  to  find  a  permanent  record. 

§  1351.  Such  inner  impulses  to  written  composition 
were  promoted  by  exceptional  outward  circumstances. 
Men  of  the  priestly  class,  who  had  shown  so  much  liter- 
ary activity  in  the  preceding  age  (§  1017),  were  now 
without  official  occupation.  At  the  same  time,  the  inter- 
est of  the  priests  in  the  edification  of  their  people  was 
as  great  as  ever,  and  the  business  of  informing  them  by 
tongue  or  pen  would  flourish  b}T  the  mere  conversion  of 
energy.  Possibly  the  strongest  external  influence  was 
that  of   the    people  and   institutions  of   Babylonia.     The 

380 


Ch.  II,  §  1352  BABYLONIAN   INFLUENCES  381 

gradual  diffusion  of  technical  education  by  means  of  the 
employments  of  Babylonian  life  (§  1301  ff.J)  was  of  itself 
a  general  preparation.  A  special  incentive  was  the  habit 
of  writing,  almost  universal  among  the  people  of  the 
land,  and  necessarily  made  general  among  the  Hebrews 
as  they  came  to  be  engaged  in  varied  business.  Add 
to  this  the  effect  upon  a  gifted  people  of  a  literary  atmos- 
phere and  of  a  great  literature  of  immemorial  antiquity. 
The  Hebrew  literature  of  the  Exile  shows  many  tokens 
of  Babylonian  influence  direct  and  indirect.  Such  are  a 
more  copious  and  systematic  form  and  style  of  compo- 
sition, the  use  of  Babylonian  imagery,  allusions  to  Baby- 
lonian scenery  and  national  customs,  the  employment  of 
characteristic  Babylonian  phrases,  and  a  larger  view  of 
the  world  and  of  the  scope  of  providence  and  history. 

§  1352.  Special  emphasis  must  be  laid  upon  two  of 
the  ways  in  which  Hebrew  literature  was  affected  by  the 
Exile,  and  chiefly  through  Babylonian  influence.  In  the 
first  place,  distinctness  and  regularity  of  form  were 
given  to  Hebrew  composition.  No  production  of  an 
earlier  time,  except  the  prophec}'  of  Amos,  is  marked 
by  symmetry  of  structure.  The  works  of  Hosea,  Micah, 
Isaiah,  Zephaniah,  Nahum,  Ilabakkuk,  and,  to  a  large 
extent,  Jeremiah,  have  all  come  to  us  in  a  greater  or 
less  degree  unshapen  and  in  disorder.1  Single  passages 
may  be  and  often  are  models  of  choice  rhetoric.  Sanity 
and  energy  of  thought,  and  the  constant  pressure  of  the 
realities  of  the  outer  and  inner  life  of  men,  ensured 
the  coherence  and  reasonableness  of  each  single  dis- 
course. But  there  is  not  the  coordination  and  concur- 
rence of  several  parts,  the  continuity  of  purpose,  the 
cumulative  effect,  which  mark  a  considerable  work  of 
art.  We  do  not  expect  from  any  Hebrew  writer  the 
sustained   logical  argument  or  the  elaborate    design  that 

1  The  abruptness  of  the  transitions  thereby  entailed  creates  as  much 
difficulty  in  the  critical  analysis  as  does  the  absence  of  the  names  of  the 
authors. 


382  CRITERIA   OF   STYLE   AND   MANNER  Book  XI 

distinguish  the  Greek  philosopher  or  tragedian.  But 
largeness  and  comprehensiveness  of  conception,  with  due 
adaptation  of  auxiliary  details,  were  not  beyond  the  scope 
of  the  Hebrew  orator  and  poet. 

§  1353.  The  distinction  in  style  and  method  between 
the  earlier  and  the  later  is  felt  immediately  when  we  ob- 
serve the  plan  and  system  of  Ezekiel,  who  was  after  all 
only  mechanically  an  artist ;  or  a  little  later,  when  we  are 
confronted  with  the  majestic  unity  and  triumphal  progress 
of  the  Second  Isaiah ;  or,  later  still,  when  we  follow  the 
profound  moral  reasoning  and  internal  cogency  of  the  book 
of  Job.  It  was  not  the  habit  of  earlier  writers  or  speakers 
to  arrange  their  works  artistically.1  They  sometimes 
edited  their  own  separate  discourses  by  writing  them  down 
and  condensing  them,  as  Baruch  edited  what  was  com- 
mitted to  him  of  the  utterances  of  Jeremiah ;  but  the  dis- 
position of  their  complete  works  was  left  to  other  and  later 
hands.  That  the  book  of  Amos  forms  an  exception  shows 
either  that  he  was  a  unique  original  artist,  or  that  the 
matter  of  the  book  was  rearranged  after  the  Exile.2 

§  1354.  Another  literary  effect  of  the  Exile  was  the 
increased  employment  of  artificial,  or  rather  of  indirect 
modes  of  description  and  instruction,  especially  of  symbol, 
parable,  and  allegory.  I  need  only  instance  the  prevailing 
types  of  EzekieFs  discourses  and  of  those  of  Zechariah,  and 
that  greatest  personification  in  all  literature,  the  Servant 
of  Jehovah,  in  the  Second  Isaiah.  Apart  from  the  influ- 
ences of  environment  (§  1351),  it  is  quite  probable  that  ban- 
ishment, national  and  personal,  promoted  in  its  measure 
this  form  of  composition.    Friedrich  Schlegel  has  expressed 


1  Longer  compositions  with  an  historical  framework  (J  and  E)  neces- 
sarily involved  a  plan  suited  to  the  general  purpose,  but  this  scarcely 
comes  within  the  province  of  literary  art.  The  original  Deuteronomy 
certainly  shows  no  definite  progress  in  its  arrangement  of  topics.  Con- 
trast its  structure  with  the  systematizing  of  P. 

-  II.  J.  Elhorst,  Deprofetie  van  Amos  (Leiden,  1900),  claims  for  Amos 
an  intermediate  date,  008  to  621  b.c. 


Cii.  II,  §  1356  LITERARY  OUTCOME  383 

the  opinion 1  that  the  prohibition  of  sensible  images  of  the 
Deity  fostered  the  employment  of  types  and  symbols  in 
the  Hebrew  literature.  We  may  go  further  and  say  that 
the  same  propensity  was  encouraged  by  the  complete  ab- 
straction of  the  writers  of  the  Exile  from  all  the  outward 
reminders  of  the  faith  and  history  of  their  people.  How 
different  were  the  visions  of  Ezekiel  in  Babylonia  from  the 
single  vision  of  Isaiah  in  Jerusalem!  Was  it  not  through 
a  similar  subtle  interaction  of  mind,  spirit,  and  environ- 
ment, that  Dante  the  exile  became  the  seer  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  and  that  Bunyan  the  prisoner  composed  the  most 
realistic  and  effective  of  allegories  ? 

§  1355.  The  literary  activity  of  the  exiles  resulted  in 
(1)  historical  compilation ;  (2)  ritual  and  legal  prescription: 
(3)  original  or  living  prophecy ;  (4)  sacred  song.  An 
intense  occupation  with  the  past  history  of  Israel,  was,  like 
the  changes  in  literary  form  above  mentioned  (§  1352  ff.), 
in  great  measure  the  result  of  disassociation  from  the 
long-cherished  life  and  scenes  of  Palestine.  While  there 
was,  in  a  sense,  no  present  for  the  nation,  the  past  appeared 
all  the  more  significant  and  imposing.  Historical  interest 
became  more  intelligently  directed,  as  well  as  more  intense, 
when  the  survival  of  Israel  in  its  banishment  was  changed 
from  longing  to  hope  and  from  hope  to  certainty.  The 
past  must  be  viewed  not  merely  as  a  great  fact,  but  as  a 
lesson ;  not  merely  as  a  discipline,  but  as  a  preparation. 
The  humble  dwelling  of  the  scribe  was  changed  from  a 
study  into  a  school.  Thought  and  utterance  shaped  them- 
selves by  the  ideals  and  obligations  of  a  wider  future. 

§  1356.  The  conception  of  Israel's  history  which  had 
been  formed  during  the  evil  reign  of  Manasseh,  and  which 
found  expression  in  Deuteronomy,  became  crystallized  into 
a  religious  dogma  during  the  Exile.  The  code  of  Deuter- 
onomy, now  canonized  by  the  fall  of  its  despises,  was  a 

1  Geschichte der  alten  mid  neuen Litteratur  (1812).  oh.  i\.  He  remarks 
that  a  similar  prohibition  has  produced  a  similar  effect  among  the  Mo- 
hammedans. 


384  REVISION   OF    HISTORY  Book  XI 

monumental  proclamation  that  the  one  great  offence  of 
Israel  had  been  the  false  worship  of  Jehovah  and  the  com- 
bination of  his  service  with  that  of  alien  gods.  Alreadjr, 
before  the  Exile,  this  conception  had  apparently  affected 
the  treatment  of  the  earlier  literature.  But  now  the 
whole  previous  history  of  Israel  was  revised  and  supple- 
mented in  accordance  with  this  interpretation.  So  deep 
and  strong  was  the  impression  of  the  evil  wrought  in  the 
heart  and  life  of  the  nation  by  idolatry  and  disloyalty 
to  Jehovah  that  no  room  was  left  in  the  minds  of  the 
scribes  for  the  consideration  of  any  other  cause.  Hence 
chiefly  the  striking  absence  from  the  historical  books  of 
reference  to  the  actual  sins  and  crimes  of  the  people  or 
its  leaders,  apart  from  the  worship  of  idols  or  of  Jehovah 
Himself  in  an  unlawful  fashion.1  We  feel  that  the  ex- 
treme but  searching  moral  indictment  of  the  prophets  is 
truer  to  the  life ;  and  we  turn  to  them  with  satisfaction 
from  the  stereotyped  phrases  in  which  the  religious  de- 
linquencies of  this  and  that  period  or  ruler  are  catalogued 
in  the  historical  books.  Probably  the  mass  of  the  Hebrew 
people  could  be  moved  in  no  other  way.  Being  Hebrews, 
they  were  accustomed  to  hyperbole  in  all  sorts  and  modes 
of  discourse,  and  it  was  necessary  to  present  what  was  ob- 
noxious in  such  a  way  as  would  admit  of  no  qualification 
or  abatement.  But  the  Deuteronomic  editors  went  further 
in  their  definition  of  false  worship.  Since  all  religious 
rites  were  interdicted  by  Deuteronomy,  except  at  Jerusalem, 
the  test  of  the  "  rightness  "  of  any  reign  was  its  conformity 
to  the  code. 

§  1357.  It  was  upon  these  lines  that  the  book  (or,  as 
we  now  have  them,  the  books)  of  the  Kings  was  revised 
and  reconstructed.  The  obvious  divisions  of  this  work 
are :  (1)  the  reign  of  Solomon,  1  K.  i.-xi. ; 2  (2)  the  con- 
current 4-eigns  of  the  kings  of  Israel  and  Judah,  2  K.  xii.- 

1  Cf.  Montefiore,  Religion  of  the  Ancient  Hebreios  (Hibbert  Lectures, 
1892),  p.  232  f. 

-  Cbs.  i.  and  ii.  are  a  close  continuation  of  Samuel. 


Cm  II,  §  1358  BOOK  OF   KINGS  385 

xvii. ;  (3)  the  reigns  of  the  surviving  kingdom  of  Judah 
alone,  2  K.  xviii.-xxv.  As  for  Solomon,  the  chief  distinc- 
tion accorded  to  him  is  that  of  builder  of  the  Temple,  the 
act  which  fixed  the  central  worship,  while  his  own  reli- 
gious infidelit}'  is  not  overlooked.  In  the  second  and  third 
divisions  a  striking  contrast  of  modes  of  treatment  is  to  be 
noted.  Since  the  Northern  Kingdom  was  founded  under 
the  auspices  of  the  sj-mbolical  worship  of  Jehovah,  this  is 
regarded  as  the  primal  apostasy.  Hence  it  was  made  a 
standing  phrase  descriptive  of  every  northern  king  with- 
out exception,  that  "  he  did  evil  in  the  sight  of  Jehovah," 
or  "  walked  in  the  way  of  Jeroboam  (son  of  Nebat)  who 
made  Israel  to  sin."  Of  many  of  the  kings  of  Judah  a 
similar  condemnation  is  given.  Eight  of  them  are  com- 
mended, yet  of  all  of  them  except  Hezekiah  and  Josiah 
it  is  said  that  they  failed  to  remove  the  "  high  places." 

§  1358.  The  book  of  Kings  brings  a  new  feature  into 
Hebrew  historical  writing,  in  that  for  the  first  time  the 
sources  of  certain  facts  are  regularly  mentioned.  These 
are  for  the  first  division  "  the  book  of  the  acts  of  Solo- 
mon"  (1  K.  xi.  41)  ;  for  the  Northern  Kingdom  "the  book 
of  the  Chronicles  of  the  kings  of  Israel ";  and  for  the 
Southern,  "  the  book  of  the  Chronicles  of  the  kings  of 
Judah."1  The  natural  supposition  is  that  allusion  is  made 
to  works  already  existing,  which  would  thus  seem  to  be  a 
digest  of  the  events  of  the  reigns  of  the  two  sets  of  kings 
and  of  their  principal  actions.2  It  is  possible,  but  not  so 
probable,  that  the  official  annals  of  the  kingdom  are  in- 
tended. However,  it  was  from  them  that  the  information 
was  ultimately  obtained. 


1  I  need  scarcely  remind  any  of  my  nailers  that  these  books  are  not  to 
be  confounded  with  the  canonical  books  of  Chronicles. 

2  How  little  there  is  in  Kings  of  "history"  in  the  modern  sense  is  seen 
for  example  in  the  account  of  Azariah  (Uzziah),  the  most  influential  king 
that  ever  reigned  over  Judah.  of  his  public  life  nothing  whatever  is  said 
(2  Kings  xv.  1-7),  so  that  we  get  our  knowledge  of  him  from  the  much* 
decried  Chronicles  and  the  Assyrian  inscriptions. 

2c 


386  SOURCES  AND  DATE   OF   KINGS  Book  XI 

§  1359.  A  second  principal  element  in  this  work  is  a 
series  of  stories  interrupting  the  skeleton-like  record  of  the 
reigns  of  the  kings.  These  recitals  have  mostly  to  do  with 
the  temple  and  its  worship  and  the  acts  of  the  greatest  of 
the  prophets.  They  are  not  written  in  the  compiler's  own 
manner,  nor,  so  far  as  we  can  judge,  in  the  manner  of  his 
time.  On  all  grounds  we  may  assume  that  they  formed 
part  of  compositions  already  existing.  Thus  we  have  in 
Kings  abundant  evidence  of  the  continuance  in  both  king- 
doms of  that  narrative  and  biographical  writing  which 
characterized  the  early  monarchy  (§  914  ff.). 

§  1360.  The  date  of  the  composition  of  Kings  cannot 
be  fixed  with  absolute  certainty.1  That  additions  were 
made  during  the  Exile  is  clear,  and  the  prevailing  opinion 
of  critics  now  is  that  the  work  had  two  Deuteronomic  re- 
dactors, the  former  doing  his  work  about  600  B.C.,  and  the 
other  perhaps  towards  the  end  of  the  Exile.  It  is  reason- 
able to  suppose  that  the  former  completed  his  task  with 
the  account  of  the  reformation  of  Josiah,  and  the  latter 
concluded  his  with  the  story  of  Jehoiachin  (2  K.  xxv.  27- 
30).  The  authorship  it  is  useless  to  conjecture.  It  is 
enough  to  say  that  the  work  was  the  product  of  a  formal 
priestly-prophetic  school,  and  that  this  was  not  (cf.  §  1068) 
the  school  of  Jeremiah.2 

§  1361.  In  the  spirit  of  Deuteronomy  a  revision  and  re- 
adjustment were  made  of  Deuteronomy  itself,  which  was 
enlarged  by  the  addition  of  chs.  i.-iv.,  an  historical,  and 
v.-xi.,  a  hortatory  introduction;  also  of  chs.  xxvii.,  xxix., 
xxx.;  chs.  xxxi.  to  xxxiv.  being  added  after  the  Exile 
(cf.  §  847).     Judges  was  made  virtually  as  we  have  it, 


1  Passages  such  as  2  Kings  viii.  22  ;  xvi.  G  ("  unto  this  day  "),  merely 
indicate  that  the  compiler  was  not  always  careful  about  his  method  of 
quoting  from  his  sources;  for  "this  day"  is  there  clearly  not  his  day. 

-  Who  was  formerly  held  to  have  written  the  book  !  Even  Driver 
(Intr.6  p.  199)  says  that  "  the  compiler  was  a  man  like-minded  with  Jere- 
miah." There  was  as  much  mental  and  moral  kinship  between  them  as 
there  was  between  the  priest  Newman  and  the  prophet  Carlyle. 


Ch.  II,  §  1363  RITUAL   AND   PSALMS  387 

without  the  later  addition  of  chs.  xx.,  xxi.  Something 
similar  may  be  said  of  Samuel,  whose  Deuteronomic  form 
is  reached  by  taking  away  the  Song  of  Hannah  and  ch. 
xxii.  of  the  second  book  (§  909),  these  being  of  later  date. 

§  1362.  For  the  ritual  and  ceremonial  service  of  the 
future  Israel  (§  1355)  an  important  work  was  done  by 
the  composition  of  the  so-called  "  Law  of  Holiness " 1 
found  in  Lev.  xvii.-xxvi.  It  consists  mainly  of  ordinances 
relating  to  ceremonial  cleanness,  to  the  Sabbath,  the  great 
feasts,  and  the  temple  service.  Its  association  with  Deuter- 
onomy is  shown  in  its  hortatoiy  conclusion  and  its  insistence 
upon  a  single  central  sanctuary.  This  is  not  quite  so 
significant  of  its  date  as  is  its  more  striking  resemblance  to 
Ezek.  xl.-xlviii.  (§  1314).  Like  EzekieFs  scheme,  it  goes 
beyond  Deuteronomy  by  its  minutiae  of  prescription,  being 
thus  intermediate  between  D  and  P  in  method  and  spirit. 
The  chief  interest  is  sacerdotal  and  ceremonial.  AVe  may 
assume  that  it  was  intended  as  a  law-book  for  the  new 
Jerusalem  of  Ezekiel,  and  written  by  a  pupil  of  that 
priest-prophet  in  the  latter  half  of  the  Exile. 

§  1363.  Prophecy  in  the  Exile  has  already  been  dis- 
cussed for  the  first  half  of  the  period.  Its  continuation 
belongs  to  the  closing  years  of  the  Babylonian  monarchy, 
and  the  history  of  its  literary  treatment  is  in  large  part 
post-exilic.  But  a  word  must  be  said  on  the  difficult 
yet  pressing  question  of  exilic  Psalms.  On  the  question 
of  pre-exilic  Psalms  we  have  already  spoken  (§  605,  909). 
If  we  disabuse  our  minds  of  the  notion  that  the  Psalms 
in  general  were  written  for  liturgical  purposes,  and  ac- 
knowledge that  the  most  original  and  vital  of  the  sacred 
songs  of  Israel  were,  like  the  choicest  hymns  of  every 
other  country  and  time,  the  offspring  of  an  intense  and 
deep  religious  life,  we  shall  see  at  once  that  no  period 
of   Israel's  history  was  more;   likely  to  give  rise  to  such 

1  A  modern  name,  happily  suggested  by  Klostermann,  on  the  ground 
of  the  ruling  idea  of  the  work  as  given  in  Lev.  xix.  2.    As  we  have  it.  it 

is  imbedded  in  the  work  of  1'.     It  is  known  mystically  as  II. 


388  PSALMS   OF   THE   EXILE  Book  XI 

poems  of  the  heart  than  was  the  Exile.  Hence,  to  make 
as  small  a  choice  as  possible,  it  ma}-  be  conceded  on  in- 
ternal grounds  that  at  least  Ps.  xxii.,  li.,  lxix.,  lxxi.,  lxxxiv., 
cii.  belong  to  this  period  of  suffering  and  probation.  Others, 
such  as  Ps.  cxxvi.  and  cxxxvii.,  written  in  Palestine  after 
the  first  Return,  belong  virtually  to  the  same  period. 


CHAPTER   III 

THE   CHALD^EAN   DOMINION 

§  1364.  The  reign  of  Nebuchadrezzar  was  long  and 
prosperous.  His  devotion  to  the  material  and  spiritual 
development  of  his  own  proper  country  kept  him  from 
the  ambition  and  the  curse  of  Assyrian  imperialism.  Our 
interest  in  him  as  a  ruler  is,  therefore,  an  interest  in  civili- 
zation and  patriotism.  His  influence  on  the  destiny  and 
character  of  Israel,  which  was  of  more  consequence  to 
the  world  than  all  his  other  achievements  combined,  was 
an  indirect  consequence  of  this  statesmanlike  policy.  Of 
his  wars  after  the  fall  of  Jerusalem  in  his  eighteenth 
year  (586  B.C.),  we  know  but  little,  for  reasons  already 
given  (§  1053,  note).  There  is  no  good  reason  to  suppose 
that  they  were  numerous.  Those  with  Egypt  and  Tyre, 
which  are  of  the  greatest  biblical  interest,  were  certainly 
the  most  important  of  them. 

§  1365.  The  war  with  Egypt  consisted  of  a  series  of 
intermittent  campaigns.  Its  main  motive  was  to  make  it 
impossible  for  Egypt  to  again  seize  upon  Palestine  and 
Syria.  This  war  and  also  that  with  Tyre  have  a  biblical 
importance  in  connection  with  the  prophecies  of  Jeremiah 
and  Ezekiel.  This  makes  regrettable  the  absence  of  full 
information  regarding  them.  The  general  situation,  how- 
ever, is  clear  enough.  The  twenty-sixth  Egyptian  dynasty, 
or  that  of  Sais  (§  1030),  as  we  have  seen,  had  great  com- 
mercial aims  and  enterprise,  and  sought  to  secure  the 
trade  of  the  Mediterranean.  For  the  most  part  at  least, 
a  close  alliance  was  maintained  with  Tyre,  which  placed 

389 


390  BABYLONIA   AND   EGYPT  Book  XI 

its  ships  at  the  disposal  of  Egypt.1  Tyre,  being  besides 
an  ally  of  Judah  in  the  revolt  of  Zedekiah,  was  besieged 
by  Nebuchadrezzar  in  585,  just  after  the  fall  of  Jerusa- 
lem. It  sustained  a  blockade  by  land  of  thirteen  years,2 
the  besieging  forces  with  all  the  ships  they  could  muster 
(cf.  §  081)  not  being  able  to  cut  off  supplies  by  water. 
Egypt  was  also  invaded  while  Pharaoh  Hophra  (Apries), 
the  ally  of  Zedekiah,  was  still  on  the  throne.  An  Egyp- 
tian inscription  mentions  that  the  Babylonian  army 
overran  Egypt  as  far  as  its  southerly  border  at  Syene 
(Assouan).  Egypt,  therefore,  for  a  time  was  subject  or, 
at  least,  tributary  to  Babylonia.  The  next  ruler,  Amasis, 
a  general  under  Hophra,  was  made  king  by  the  native 
Egyptian  troops  in  an  uprising  against  the  Greek  and 
Carian  mercenaries  who  were  favoured  by  Hophra.3  At 
his  ascension  he  would  seem  to  have  thrown  off  the 
Babylonian  suzerainty,  for  the  thirty-seventh  year  of  Neb- 
uchadrezzar, in  which  an  expedition  was  made  against 
Egypt  (  §  1053,  note),  falls  in  567,  soon  after  the  Egyptian 
revolution.  This,  however,  was  near  the  close  of  the 
Great  King's  reign,  and  there  is  no  evidence  from  any 
source  that  the  subjugation  of  Egypt  was  effected  anew. 
Perhaps  it  was  found  that  in  the  divided  and  weakened 
condition  of  that  country  there  was  little  danger  of 
another  invasion  of  Asia. 

§  1306.  The  biblical  prophecies  regarding  these  events 
are  lengthy  and  specific.  Jeremiah's  predictions,  given  in 
chs.  xlvi.  13  ff.,  were  uttered  in  view  of  the  impending 
retreat  of  Pharaoh  Necho4  from  Syria  and  Palestine  before 

1  Herodotus  (II,  1G1)  asserts  that  Hophra  inarched  against  Sidon  and 
fough.1  a  naval  battle  with  Tyre.  This  must  have  taken  place  at  the 
beginning  of  his  reign,  and  hostile  relations  were  only  temporary. 

-  Josephus  against  Apion,  i,  21. 
Herod.  II,  163,  Ki'.i. 

4  Noteworthy  is  the  imitation  of  Isa.  xxx.  7,  gained  by  a  slight  change 
in  the  pointing  of  v.  17  :  ('all  the  name  of  Pharaoh  king  of  Egypt, 
•'  A  noise,  that  lets  the  occasion  pass"  —  in  English  phrase,  "a  blusterer 
that  misses  his  chance  "  (see  Giesebrecht  on  the  passage). 


Ch.  Ill,  §  1367  COMMENTS   OF   PROPHECY  391 

the  army  of  Nebuchadrezzar  (cf.  §  1089).  Among  other 
calamities,  the  destruction  of  Memphis  (v.  19)  and  the 
capture  of  Thebes  (v.  25  f.)  are  foretold.  Briefer,  but 
equally  explicit,  is  the  prediction  at  Tahpanhes  in  xliii. 
10  ff.  (cf.  §  1255).  Ezekiel  discourses  of  Egypt  and  its 
fate  in  four  chapters  (xxix.-xxxii.),  delivered  just  before 
and  after  the  fall  of  Jerusalem,  except  the  later  brief 
prophecy  (xxix.  17-21).  The  oracles  are  modelled  upon 
the  same  general  plan,  the  overthrow  of  Egypt  and  its 
king  being  set  forth  in  all,  but  with  a  variety  of  detail. 
Striking  figures  are  employed  and  elaborated:  the  croco- 
dile of  the  Nile  (xxix.  3  ff.;  xxxii.  2  ff.),  the  lofty,  cedar- 
like Assyria  (xxxi.  2  ff.).  The  king  of  Babylon  is  the 
agent  of  destruction,  but  he  is  a  mere  passive  instrument 
in  Jehovah's  hands  (xxx.  10  ff.,  24  ff.  ).1  Very  singular  is 
the  later  prophecy  above  alluded  to,  which  was  delivered 
fifteen  years  after  the  latest  of  the  others  (cf.  xxix.  IT 
with  xxxii.  17).  In  it  Egj-pt  is  promised  to  Nebuchadrez- 
zar as  a  recompense  for  his  failure  to  gain  anything  by  his 
campaign  against  T}-re.  Here  the  Great  King  is  described 
plainly  as  a  servant  of  Jehovah,  to  whom  he  was  to  look 
for  his  wages.  It  is  the  image  of  a  mercenary  soldier, 
whose  pay  depends  upon  his  success. 

§  13G7.  In  view  of  this  latest  oracle  another  series  of 
prophecies  is  more  remarkable  still.  These  are  directed 
against  Tjn-e  (chs.  xxvi.-xxviii.)  and  Sidon  (xxviii.  20- 
24).  Tire  first  discourse  was  given  toward  the  end  of  586, 
the  year  of  the  fall  of  Jerusalem  (xxvi.  1,  2);  the  other 
two  are  not  dated,  but  belong  to  the  same  period.  In  ch. 
xxvi.  a  detailed  description  is  given  of  the  impending  siege 
of  the  city  by  Nebuchadrezzar,  of  the  capture  of  the  sub- 
urbs, of  the  taking  of  the  metropolis  and  the  slaughter  of 
its  people,  its  utter  destruction  and  perpetual  desolation. 
In  ch.  xxvii.  Tyre  is  represented  as  a  splendid   merchant 

1  Fur  other  points  see  the  summary  in  Davidson's  Ezekiel  I  "Cambridge 
Bible"),  i>-  210  fi.     Note  especially  the  concluding  dirge  (xxxii.  17-82), 

which  Davidson  calls  "one  of  the  most  weird  passages  in  literature." 


392  EVIL-MERODACH   KING   IX    BABYLON         Book  XI 

vessel  laden  with  the  produce  of  all  lands,  and  at  last 
wrecked  amid  the  lamentations  of  all  the  merchants  and 

mariners  of  the  world.  In  eh.  xxviii.  a  lament  is  uttered 
over  the  tall  of  the  ruler  of  Tyre,  in  spite  of  his  sagacity, 
skill,  wealth,  and  magnificence.  Vet  at  the  close  of  the 
thirteen  years"  siege  1  the  prophet  states  plainly  that 
Nebuchadrezzar  gained  nothing  by  his  operations.  This 
is  perhaps  the  plainest  instance  in  Scripture  of  the  condi- 
tional character  of  prophetic  prediction.2  The  prophet's 
secular  learning  was  not  displayed  in  vain  :  for  eh.  xxvii. 
gives  us  the  fullest  description  of  Phoenician  vessels  and 
commerce  that  has  come  to  us  from  antiquity. 

^  1368.  In  562  the  greatest  kingly  career  that  Western 
Asia  had  known  was  ended  by  the  death  of  Nebuchadrez- 
zar, lie  passed  away  full  of  years  and  honours,  leaving 
an  empire  which  to  all  outward  appearance  might  last  for 
centuries.  In  less  than  a  quarter  ci  a  century  it  went  the 
way  of  the  Assyrian.  The  tale,  brief  as  it  is.  is  well  worth 
the  telling.  The  motives  of  the  catastrophe  lie  without 
as  well  as  within  Babylonia  and  its  people.  External  as- 
saults from  the  rising  Aryan  power  might  in  any  case  have 
brought  it  about  eventually,  but  it  was  accelerated  by  its 
own  lack  of  inner  eohesiveness  and  by  misgovernment. 

S  1369.  The  successor  of  Nebuchadrezzar  was  his  son 
Evil-Merodach  (Amel-Marduh^  "the  manor  servant  of  Me- 
rodach"  ).  His  reign  lasted  but  two  years.  As  we  have  no 
inscription  from  him  as  yet.  we  learn  of  him  only  from  a 
brief  biblical  notice  (2  K.  xxv.  '2~  >,  and  from  a  sentence 
in  Josephus  which  says,  on  the  authority  of  Berossus,  that 
he  eroverned  lawlessly  and  wantonly.3     This  does  not  well 


1  The  siege  ended  in  ">72.  and  this  final  prophecy  was  given  in  570. 

-  Not  of  "prophecy,"  as  is  usually  said.  "Conditional  prophecy"  is 
an  unmeaning  phrase.  Observe,  by  the  way.  that  even  this  latest  expedi- 
tion against  Egypt,  of  whose  preparation  Ezekiel  was  aware  in  ">70.  did 
net  bring  greal  success  to  Nebuchadrezzar  (§  1365). 

:!  rii'ouu>s  Kai  iffeky&s  I  Against  Apion,  i.  20).  Another  allusion  in  Ant. 
x.  11.  •_'.  merely  repeats  the  biblical  statement 


Ch.  III.  §  1371  KING   NERIGLISSAB 

agree  with  the  magnanimous  deed  ascribed  to  him  in 
Kings.  The  liberation  and  honouring  of  Jehoiaehin  was 
of  course  only  one  of  a  number  of  similar  actions.  Per- 
haps, as  has  been  suggested,1  he  was  not  very  deferential 
to  the  dominant  priestly  party,  to  whom  the  harsh  judg- 
ment is  to  be  traced.  At  any  rate  his  reign  was  very 
short,  and  had  a  tragic  end.  He  was  slain  in  a  revolt 
headed  by  his  sister's  husband  Neriglissar  (JVi  rgal-sar-usur, 
•■  Nergal  protect  the  king !  "),  who  naturally  took  his  place 
upon  the  throne  (-J»iU-556). 

§1370.  Neriglissar  vied  with  his  father-in-law2  in 
building  up  Babylon,  regulating  the  Euphrates,  repairing 
the  palaces  and  especially  the  temples.  This,  in  fact,  is 
the  sum  of  what  is  known  of  his  reign.  He  appears,  how- 
ever, as  an  important  personage  in  several  contract-tablets 
of  the  reign  of  Nebuchadrezzar.  He  was  probably  the 
"  Nergalshareser "  of  Jer.  xxxix.  3,  13,  who  was  one  of 
the  officers  entrusted  with  the  care  of  the  captured  city 
of  Jerusalem  (§  1233,  note).3  If  this  is  so,  he  was  a  con- 
temporary of  Nebuchadrezzar  himself,  and  his  brief  reigu 
of  four  years  may  have  been  terminated  by  old  age.  lie 
was  succeeded  by  his  son,  Labasi-Marduk,  the  "  Labaro- 
soarchod"  of  Berossus-Josephus,  who  reigned,  however, 
but  nine  months  (556),  when  he  was  slain  by  a  conspiracy 
of  nobles. 

^  1371.  One  of  the  participants  of  the  plot  was  a  mag- 
nate named  Nabonidus  (Nabu-ncfidi  "Nebo  is  exalted"), 
who  was  elected  king  and  reigned  till  the  downfall  of  the 
empire  (556-539).     From  him  we  have  several  important 

i  Winckler,  GBA.  p.  314. 

-  This  relationship  seems  indubitable,  hut  Btrangely  enough  Neriglissar, 

in  the  longer  <>f  his  two  known  inscriptions  I  the  Cambridge  cylinder,  I  K. 
-  i.  n  .  calls  his  father  Bel-sum-iskun,  "king  of  Babylon.'1  This 
puzzle  lias  given  rise  to  much  conjecture.  See  Tiele,  BAG.  \>.  466  f.  There 
is  no  evidence  that  Nabopalassar  made  any  one  joint-king  with  him.  Yet 
this  is,  after  all.  the  most  probable  hypoth  cially  as  the  name  of 

Neriglissar  would  seem  to  indicate  royal  paternity. 
»Cf.  Winckler.  (.HA.  p.  :;.;*  (nob    - 


394  THE    LAST   KING,    NABONIDUS  Book  XI 

personal  inscriptions ; 1  and  very  many  business-tablets  of  his 
time  have  also  been  found.  He  is  famous  as  an  explorer 
of  ancient  ruins  and  their  buried  records,  and  also  as  a 
builder  and  renewer  of  temples.  His  chief  distinction, 
however,  is  that  he  paid  more  attention  to  the  temples 
of  the  gods  outside  of  the  district  of  Babylon2  than  he 
did  to  those  of  the  capital  itself.  Add  to  this  the  fact 
that  he  preferred  not  to  reside  in  the  capital,  but  lived  in 
a  suburban  town  named  Tenia.  The  command  of  the  army 
fell  to  his  son  Belshazzar  (Bel-lar-usur^  "  Bel,  protect  the 
king !  "),  whose  name  is  familiar  to  us  from  the  book  of 
Daniel,  and  who  played  his  part  well  to  the  end.  Early 
in  his  reign  trouble  came  in  Mesopotamia,  but  it  was 
removed  by  outside  interference  (§  1383).  On  the  whole, 
his  empire  held  well  together  by  inertia. 

§  1372.  Was  his  policy  more  popular  with  his  people 
than  that  pursued  by  his  predecessors?  It  would  seem  to 
have  been  so  for  a  time  at  least.  Certainly  centralization 
had  been  carried  too  far.  The  temples  being  the  centres 
of  business,  as  well  as  the  boast  of  the  several  cities  of 
the  country,  the  aggrandizement  of  the  capital  actually 
at  length  impoverished  the  provincial  towns  and  threatened 
them  with  ruin  (of.  §  1285  ff.).  At  any  rate,  this  course  of 
conduct  which  the  present  king's  religiousness  led  him 
to  pursue  was  welcome  to  the  outside  cities.  But  the 
time  came  when  something  more  than  piety  and  indiscrimi- 
nate temple-building  was  demanded  of  the  ruler  of  Baby- 
lonia, and  the  people  of  the  capital  at  last  grew  indifferent 
to  a  king  of  antiquarian  tastes  and  subterranean  habits. 

i  Published  in  IP.  68  and  09,  and  in  VP.  63-G5.  All  of  the  inscrip- 
tions of  his  reign  available  up  to  date,  1134  in  number,  are  given  in 
Strassmaier,  Inschriften  von  Nabonidus,  Eonig  von  Babylon  (1889).  Of 
the  transcriptions  and  translations  should  be  mentioned  V  It.  64  by 
Latrille  (with  commentary)  in  ZK.  II,  and  ZA.  I,  and  all  of  the  inscrip- 
tions in  I  It.  and  V  R.  (with  the  addition  of  Br.  M.  85-4,  30.  2)  by  Peiser 
in  KB.  Ill,  ii.  p.  8(1-120  (1890).  For  his  annals,  or  the  "chronicle  of 
Nabonidus  and  Cyrus,"  see  note  to  §  1382. 

2  For  his  work  at  Sippar,  in  the  temple  of  the  Sun-god,  see  §  87. 


CHAPTER   IV 

CYRUS    AND   THE   PERSIANS 

§  1373.  We  have  arrived  at  the  point  of  time  when 
the  old  Semitic  regime  in  Western  Asia  gives  way 
to  the  Medo-Persian,  or  in  a  wider  sense  to  the  Aryan. 
Of  the  Medes  we  have  had  to  speak  repeatedly  as  a  chief 
agent  in  the  destruction  of  Nineveh.  Now  we  shall  have 
to  regard  them  and  their  Persian  congeners  as  partners  in 
a  still  greater  enterprise.  Both  of  them  were  offshoots  of 
the  Iranian  race.  The  Iranians  were  one  of  the  many 
branches  of  the  Indo-European  family.  This  people,  what- 
ever may  have  been  their  starting-place,  had  long  made 
northern  and  central  Europe  and  west  central  Asia  their 
home,  and  for  many  centuries  had  been  seeking  to  secure 
a  permanent  residence  in  more  southern  lands.  The 
Iranians  along  with  their  kindred,  the  Sanskrit-speaking 
people  of  Hindustan,  constitute  what  is  termed,  in  the 
strict  sense,  "Aryans."  They  were  also  closely  allied  to 
the  Scythians,  eastern  and  western,  and  the  Armenians. 
What  the  condition  of  the  Iranians  was  in  prehistorical 
ages  we  can  only  vaguely  gness.  In  historical  times  we 
know  simply  that  along  with  the  more  or  less  civilized 
members  of  the  race  settled  in  Iran  itself,  there  were  great 
numbers  of  kindred  nomads  ranging  along  the  northern 
steppes.  From  the  settled  tribes  and  clans  was  derived 
the  name  "Iran"  (Ariana). 

§  1374.  The  country  is  a  mountain  plateau  of  about 
fifteen  hundred  miles  in  breadth  stretching  from  the  Tigris 

396 


306  IRANIAN   TERRITORY   AND   RACK  Book  XI 

to  the  Indus  and  from  the  Persian  Gulf  to  the  present 
frontiers  of  Russia  in  Asia.  It  is  divided  into  Western 
and  Eastern  Iran  by  the  Great  Salt  Desert.  The  whole 
was  about  conterminous  with  the  modern  Persia,  Afghanis- 
tan, and  southern  Turkestan.  The  principal  seat  of  the 
early  Iranian  civilization  was  Baktria  on  the  northern  slopes 
of  the  Parapamisus  or  Ilindu-kush.  This  also  seems  to 
have  been  the  distributing  centre  of  immigration,  which 
moved  in  two  main  streams.  One  passed  southward, 
occupying  the  whole  of  the  eastern  side  of  the  plateau  as 
far  as  the  modern  Beluchistan.  Thence  its  advance  guard 
marched  westward  below  the  salt  desert  and  took  up  the 
southwest  corner  of  the  highlands,  which  was  to  become 
the  kernel  of  the  Persian  empire,  and  was  known  to  the 
ancients  as  Persis.  The  other  migrators  moved  west- 
ward and  made  their  home  to  the  south  and  southwest 
of  the  Caspian,  where  they  laid  the  foundations  of  the 
Median  empire.  It  is  noteworthy  that  while  East  Iran 
was  settled  long  before  West  Iran,  which  was  not  occupied 
by  Aryans  till  the  eighth  and  seventh  centuries  B.C.,  it  was 
the  latter  which  gave  the  Iranians  their  place  in  history. 
The  cause  of  this  phenomenon  is  not  difficult  to  discover. 
Eastern  Iran  was  not  fertile  enough  to  form  large  centres 
of  population,  and  it  took  no  share  in  the  culture  of  India, 
where  the  other  great  branch  of  the  Aryans  had  early 
developed  its  own  literature,  philosophy,  and  art.  The 
art  of  writing  was  unknown  to  the  Iranians  till  they 
learned  it  from  their  western  neighbours,  to  whom,  indeed, 
they  owed  their  advance  in  civilization. 

§  1375.  The  ancient  people  of  Iran  were  a  vigorous 
race,  of  simple  temperate  habits,  and  in  their  new  home 
in  the  highlands  they  long  maintained  the  traditions  and 
customs  of  their  primitive  life  on  the  northern  plains.  The 
social  conditions  of  the  old  patriarchal  system  were  trans- 
ferred to  the  new  state  of  things  when  agriculture  be- 
came the  basis  of  the  community.  The  great  landholders 
formed  an  aristocracy  by  themselves,  to  whom  the  peas- 


Cii.  IV,  §  1376  IRANIAN    RELIGION  397 

ants,  mechanics,  and  traders  were  alike  subordinated.  As 
larger  settlements  were  formed,  the  same  type  of  social 
and  civic  organization  was  continued  by  the  promotion  of 
the  more  influential  members  of  the  ruling  class.  But  no 
very  extensive  communities  were  developed  in  East  Iran  ; 
and  when  in  West  Iran  the  Median  monarch}'  arose,  it  was 
founded  in  emulation  of  the  Assyrian  empire. 

§  1376.  "What  chiefly  distinguished  the  Iranians  as  a 
people  and  gave  them  their  predominance  in  Asia  was 
their  religion.  The  Iranians  had  the  purest  form  of  faith 
and  worship  known  to  any  of  the  Indo-European  peoples. 
The  position  and  functions  assigned  to  the  chief  deity 
are  significant.  With  the  other  Indo-European  nations 
they  inherited  the  old  belief  in  the  supremacy  of  the  sky- 
god,  the  lord  of  the  shining  heavens,  invested  him  with  an 
active  personality,  and  ascribed  to  him  the  care  of  the 
lower  world.  The  Aryans  of  India  dethroned  him  from 
his  ancient  seat,  and  exalted  in  his  place  a  series  of  gro- 
tesque and  impalpable  abstractions ;  while  the  Greeks  and 
Romans  and  other  Europeans  degraded  him  by  endowing 
him  with  the  baser  passions  of  the  men  whom  he  governed. 
In  both  cases  the  moral  ideal  was  unrealized.  The  Iranian 
religion  conserved  the  old  simple  childlike  trust  in  the 
supreme  dispenser  of  blessing,  and  it  added  to  him  other 
ennobling  attributes.  The  god  of  light  became  here  the 
god  of  truth  and  purity,  the  lord  of  wisdom  (Ahuramazda, 
"Ormazd"),  the  spirit  of  holiness,  through  whom  the 
blessings  of  which  creation  is  full  are  conveyed  to  the 
creatures.  To  him  was  opposed  the  spirit  of  evil,  of 
impurity,  of  falsehood,  of  death  and  destruction  (Angra- 
manyu,  "  Ahriman"),  at  the  head  of  an  army  of  demons, 
who  continually  fight  against  the  good  and  righteous  spirit, 
and  fig-lit  in  vain.  Fire,  the  perpetuator  of  light,  was 
primarily  reverenced  as  its  finest  symbol,  and  the  great 
purifying  element.  Thus  truth  and  falsehood,  order  and 
disorder,  life  and  death,  were  arrayed  against  one  another 
in  unchanging  antithesis;    and  all   men    were   incited  to 


398  CONTRAST    WITH   SEMITISM  Book  XI 

become  allies  of  the  powers  of  good  in  their  war  upon  the 
powers  of  evil.  To  every  man  life  must  be  an  unbroken 
campaign  against  malignant  foes  within  and  without,  who, 
even  though  perpetually  vanquished,  were  never  slain. 
This  conflict  must  be  real.  Every  subject  of  Ahuramazda 
was  thus  called  to  a  holy  war  without  reprieve  or  discharge. 
Every  good  action  would  advance  the  kingdom  of  the  just, 
and  every  bad  deed  retard  the  final  overthrow  of  the  realm 
of  evil.  Nor  was  the  motive  confined  to  this  world  alone. 
After  life  was  ended,  the  spirit  (Fravashi)  of  the  faithful 
warrior  was  transported  to  the  realm  of  Ahuramazda, 
where  he  continued  to  be  the  helper  of  his  descendants 
still  on  the  earth.  Hence  arose  the  highest  type  of  ancestor- 
worship  known  to  men.  Where  deification  was  impossi- 
ble, veneration,  pure  and  intense,  was  kept  within  the 
bounds  of  reason. 

§  loTT.  Such  are  some  of  the  principles  of  the  Iranian 
religion.  In  spite  of  its  necessary  dualism,  it  was  thus 
a  noble  spiritual  and  ethical  system.  When  we  consider 
that  such  principles  as  these  were  cherished  by  the  rulers 
of  the  race  in  its  conflict  with  Semitism,  we  are  at  once 
struck  with  the  contrast  to  that  system  of  thought  and 
action  which  had  held  sway  so  long  over  the  peoples  of 
Western  Asia.  This  contrast  has  not  escaped  the  notice 
of  broad-minded  historians.  "  The  monarchy  of  Persia," 
observes  Ranke,  "  fulfils  a  lofty  mission.  It  has  other 
aims  in  view  than  conquest  and  plunder.  It  rises  far 
above  the  cruel  Assyrian  monarchy.  For  the  divinities 
of  Iran,  pure  and  shining  like  the  hosts  of  heaven,  demand 
neither  hecatombs  nor  licentious  rites.  They  are  not  to 
be  imitated  by  destroying  life,  but  by  increasing  and 
developing  it.  If  they  make  war,  it  is  not  from  motives 
of  ambition,  but  to  triumph  over  the  powers  of  evil,  to 
assure  the  final  victory  of  the  god  of  life.  Asshur  and  the 
goddess  who  for  the  most  part  is  named  with  him  are 
warrior  deities.  Ahuramazda  is  a  god  of  righteousness 
and  truth.     Subjection  means,  with  the  Assyrians,  subju- 


Ch.  IV,  §  1378  FIRST   PERSIAX   DYNASTY  399 

gation  by  violence;  with  the  Persians,  the  fulfilment  of 
a  supreme  will."  1 

§  1378.  Few  words  are  needed  to  tell  all  that  is  known 
of  the  early  history  of  that  branch  of  the  race  which  has 
given  historical  importance  to  the  Iranians.  Exactly  when 
the  little  district  of  Persia  (§  1374)  was  settled  by  the 
peoples  who  gave  it  the  name  is  not  certain.  It  was  at 
all  events  some  time  after  the  rise  of  the  Medes  C§  823  f.). 
All  the  kings  of  old  Persia  trace  their  descent  from  Achae- 
menes  (Jlakhdmanisli).  He  was  the  fourth  ancestor  of 
Cyrus  the  Great,2  and  may  possibly  have  been  the  founder 
of  Persis  ;  that  is  to  say,  the  first  of  the  Persian  chiefs  who 
maintained  a  permanent  settlement  in  that  district.  His 
son  Teispes  is  the  first  who  is  named  as  king,3  and  that  not 
king  of  Persis,  but  king  of  Anshan,  a  title  by  which  all  his 
successors  are  also  named  as  far  as  Cyrus  the  Great.  This 
Anshan  (also  written  Anzcui)  is  a  very  ancient  region  of 
southern  Elam,  which,  probably  about  595  B.C.  (§  1263), 
after  the  Assyrians  had  relaxed  their  hold  upon  that  coun- 
try, was  occupied  by  a  Persian  colony4  and  made  into  a 
kingdom,  after  the  pattern  of  the  northern  and  western  na- 

1  Quoted  by  Pressens6,  The  Ancient  World  and  Christianity,  p.  138. 

2  For  convenience  the  ancestry  of  the  two  earliest  lines  of  Persian  kings 
may  be  appended.  The  names  are  given  in  the  forms  employed  by  the 
classical  writers. 

1.  Achsernenes 

2.  Teispes 


3.  Cyrus  1  3.  Ariaramnes 

4.  Cambyses  I  4.  Arsames 

5.  Cyrus  II  5.  Ilystaspes 
G.  Cambyses  II  G.  Darius  I 

Cf.  Tiele,  BAG.  p.  469;  and  on  the  possible  ways  of  reconciling  the 
lists  of  Herodotus,  Darius,  and  Cyrus,  Winckler,  UAG.  p.  126  ff.  ;  Rost, 
in  MY(..  (1897),  p.  208  f.  The  genealogy  of  Cyrus  is  given  in  his  Cylin- 
der inscription  (VR.  35)  1.  20-22  ;  that  of  Darius  in  his  Behistun  inscrip- 
tion, and  in  Herod.  VII.  11. 

8  By  Cyrus,  VR.  35,21. 

4  Rest,  in  MVG.  (1807),  p.  205  f.,  points  out  the  importance  of  Susa,  the 
old  Elamitic  capital,  in  the  early  history  of  the  Persian  empire. 


400  MEDIANS    AND    LYDIANS  Book  XI 


tions.  But  the  name  of  Persian  was  always  borne  by  all 
the  race,  and  it  is  therefore  probable  that  Persis  itself  re- 
mained the  chief  centre  of  population.  Anshan,  however, 
became  tributary  to  Media,  as  this  empire  extended  itself 
over  the  old  Assyrian  provinces  east  of  the  Tigris. 

§  1879.  Under  the  policy  of  mutual  tolerance  and 
friendship  pursued  by  the  Medes  and  Chaldeeans,  the 
former  at  length  extended  their  dominion  westward  over 
all  the  uplands  as  far  as  the  river  Halys.  This  was  done 
in  the  lifetime  of  Cyaxares,  the  conqueror  of  Nineveh, 
who  reigned  till  584  B.C.  The  Halys,  indeed,  was  fixed 
as  the  boundary  by  a  remarkable  international  agreement. 
We  have  had  occasion  to  mention  the  early  kings  of  Lydia 
(§  773  ff.)  down  to  Alyattes  III  (617-560),  who  finally 
expelled  from  his  borders  the  Kimmerian  raiders  that  had 
long  disturbed  the  peace  of  his  kingdom.  Alyattes  was 
the  real  founder  of  Lydian  greatness.  With  the  expulsion 
of  the  Kimmerians,  Phrygia  and  Bithynia  fell  under  his 
power.  Many  of  the  Greek  cities  of  the  coast  submitted 
to  him.  In  his  eastward  progress  he  met  the  advancing 
forces  of  Cyaxares,  king  of  the  Medes ;  and  for  several 
years  war  was  fiercely  waged  between  them.  On  May  28, 
585,  occurred  that  famous  battle  which  was  interrupted 
by  an  eclipse  of  the  sun,  said  to  have  been  foretold  by 
Thales  of  Miletus.  Nebuchadrezzar  of  Babylon  and  the 
kino-  of  Cilicia  offered  to  mediate,  since  it  was  to  their 
interest  that  the  balance  of  power  should  be  maintained. 
It  was  by  the  ensuing  treaty  that  the  boundary  was  settled. 

§  1380.  After  the  compromise,  Lydia  continued  to 
thrive  apace.  With  the  acquisition  of  Greek  colonies  on 
the  coast  it  gained  much  culture  and  greater  wealth. 
Through  its  trade  with  east  and  west  it  became  a  great 
commercial  nation,  whose  monument  is  the  coinage  of 
money,  first  devised  in  Lydia.  In  500,  Alyattes  was  suc- 
ceeded by  his  more  famous  son  Croesus,  under  whom  pros- 
perity was  more  than  maintained.  In  584,  Cyaxares  died: 
his  successor  was  A  sty  ages.     Nebuchadrezzar  died  in  562. 


Ch.  IV,  §  1382  CYRUS  401 

The  sole  heir  of  the  empires  of  Croesus,  Astyages,  and 
Nebuchadrezzar  was  neither  a  Lydian,  nor  a  Median,  nor 
a  Babylonian,  but  Cyrus  the  Persian,  the  conqueror  of  Asia, 
the  liberator  of  the  Jews,  "  the  friend  and  the  anointed  of 
Jehovah." 

§  1381.  The  fame  of  Cyrus  was  so  great  among  the 
Greeks  that  the}r  retailed  fictions  without  end  about  his 
birth,  his  life,  and  his  death.  His  influence  upon  the  world 
was  such  that  an  extensive  supernatural  machinery  was 
required  to  explain  the  catastrophes  which  he  wrought. 
I  shall  have  to  pass  over  the  entertaining  stories  which 
have  been  related  about  his  infancy  and  childhood.  They 
are  not  idle  tales,  because  they  had  a  serious  motive.  But 
they  are  not  histoiy.  They  are  partly  traditions,  partly 
legends,  and  in  the  Greek  handling  at  least  very  largely 
myths.  Most  of  them  describe  him  as  having  been  of 
lowly  origin  but  accompanied  from  his  birth  by  dreams, 
portents,  and  marvellous  auspices  in  general,  till  his  great 
merits  attested  the  fitness  of  the  supernatural  omens. 

§  1382.  Cyrus  (KurasK)  was  born  about  590  B.C.,  one 
hundred  years  before  the  battle  of  Marathon.  He  was  a 
son  of  Cambyses  I,  and  the  second  of  the  name.  Of  his 
childhood  and  youth  we  really  know  nothing.  It  is  not 
possible  that  he  was  the  grandson  of  Astyages  the  Mede, 
as  Herodotus  and  Xenophon  assert.  The  first  authentic 
notice  reveals  him  already  as  an  antagonist  of  Astyages, 
and  at  the  same  time  throws  a  new  and  unexpected  light 
upon  the  history  of  the  time.  It  occurs  in  the  annals  or 
state  chronicle  of  Nabonidus,1  in  the  record  made,  as  it 

1  Col.  II,  1  ff.  The  entry  of  the  year,  as  well  as  the  beginning  of  the 
statement  itself,  is  broken  off,  but  the  next  entry  is  '■  year  seventh." 
This  document,  sometimes  called  the  "  Nabonidus-Cyrus  Chronicle,"  has 
been  published  last  by  <).  E.  Hagen  in  his  treatise  ••  Keilschrifturkunden 
zur  Qeschichte  des  Koniga  Cyrus"  in  BA.  II.  p.  205-257.  It  was  first 
edited  by  Pinches  in  1880  (TSHA.  VII,  139-176).  Winckler  also  gives  the 
original  text  in  UAG.  p.  154  f.  Pinches  and  Hagen  have  a  transcription, 
translation,  and  commentary  ;  and  Schrader  in  KB.  Ill,  ii,  p.  128-loG, 
gives  a  transcription  and  translation.  I  cite  it  as  Nab.  Annals. 
2d 


402  SCYTHIANS    AND    MEDES   SUBJECTED         Book  XI 

seems,  for  the  sixth  year  (550),  and  runs  as  follows: 
"  [Astyages  his  army]  assembled  and  marched  against 
Cyrus,  king  of  Anshan  to  take  [him  prisoner].  Astyages 
his  army  revolted  against  him,  seized  him  and  gave  [him] 
up  to  Cyrus.  Cyrus  (marched)  to  Agamtanu  (Ecbatana). 
Silver,  gold,  goods  and  chattels  of  all  sorts  he  carried  as 
spoil  to  Anshan." 

§  1383.  Shortly  after  this  record  was  made  Xabonidus,  in 
a  famous  inscription  already  referred  to  (§  87),  gives  impor- 
tant additional  facts.  He  was  eager  to  rebuild  the  decayed 
temple  of  Sin  in  Charran.  He  relates  how  Merodach,  his 
chief  deity,  acting  on  behalf  of  the  neglected  Sin,  told 
him  in  a  vision  that  he  must  perform  this  pious  work.  He 
then  continues :  "  Reverently  I  say  to  the  lord  of  the  gods 
Merodach :  '  That  temple  which  thou  hast  commanded  me 
to  make,  the  Scythian  is  round  about  it,  and  his  forces  are 
might}*.'  But  Merodach  says  to  me  :  '  The  Scythian  of 
whom  you  speak,  he,  his  lord,  and  the  kings  his  auxiliaries 
will  be  no  more.'  When  the  third  year  came  round,  they 
(the  gods)  set  Cyrus  his  pett}r  vassal  on  the  march.  With 
his  little  band  he  dispersed  the  wide-extended  Scythians. 
Astyages,  king  of  the  Scythians,  he  seized  and  carried 
away  prisoner  to  his  country."  *  Xabonidus  then  goes  on 
to  say  that  when  Charran  had  thus  been  cleared  of  the  bar- 
barians he  proceeded  to  rebuild  the  temple. 

§  1384.  Our  first  remark  concerns  the  word  loosely  trans- 
lated "  Scythian."  As  a  collective,  it  means  literally  "  wide- 
spreading  hordes,"  and  is  a  general  term  for  the  nomads, 
such  as  Kimmerians  and  Maniueans  (§  758,  773  ff.),  and 
Scythians  (§  810  ff.),  who  since  the  days  of  Esarhaddon 
had  invaded  from  time  to  time  the  uplands  of  Western 
Asia,  and  here  and  there  had  broken  into  the  lowlands.2 
It  is  passing  strange  that  Astyages  the  Mede  should  be 

1  V  It.  04.  col.  I,  18-33. 

2  See  Delitzsch,  HWB.,  on  the  word  in  question,  Umman-manda  I  which 
apparently  means  "  a  large  horde  ").  and  Hagen  in  BA.  II,  231.  I  trans- 
late "  Scythian  "  so  as  to  give  the  nearest  name  of  a  distinct  people. 


Ch.  IV,  §  1383     MEDIAN   SUBMISSION    EXPLAINED  403 

called  by  this  foreign  name.  The  explanation  must  be 
either  that  he  was  a  "  Scythian "  who  superseded  the 
Median  Cyaxares,1  or  that  so  many  of  these  roving  people 
had  settled  in  Media,  that  they  had  given  character  and 
name  to  the  people  and  country.  I  think  that  until  fuller 
light  is  given  we  should  decide  for  the  former  alternative. 
That  the  nomads  under  a  strong  leader  were  able  to  ex- 
trude the  Medes  from  the  ruling  place  is  quite  credible.  So 
great  was  their  influence  that  through  them  the  Median 
policy  (§  1051)  was  changed,  and  before  552  they  occu- 
pied Mesopotamia.  The  association  of  Charran  with  the 
successes  of  Cyrus  gives  colour  to  this  hypothesis.  Evi- 
dently Nabonidus  was  given  a  free  hand  in  Mesopotamia 
after  the  northern  hordes  had  retired.  But  why  did 
they  retire  unless  the  victory  over  Astyages  was  a  blow 
at  the  "  Scythian "  leadership  ?  For  the  submission  of 
Astyages,  as  we  shall  see,  was  not  followed  by  a  contrac- 
tion of  the  Median  dominion.  The  solution,  therefore, 
seems  to  be  that  these  turbulent  foreigners  were  too 
strong  for  the  legitimate  government,  and  that  the  con- 
quest of  the  Medes  by  Cyrus  involved  in  the  first  instance 
the  repression  and  perhaps  a  partial  expulsion  of  the 
northerners.  If  this  is  so,  the  motive  of  Cyrus  in  oppos- 
ing Astyages  was  not  merely  to  overthrow  the  Median 
suzerainty,  but  to  intervene  in  behalf  of  his  Iranian  kindred 
against  these  outlanders.  It  is  further  reasonable  to  sup- 
pose that  a  native  Median  party  was  discontented  with 
the  foreign  regime  2  and  that  this  gave  encouragement  to 
Cyrus  to  throw  off  the  Median  yoke. 

§  1385.  How  finely  this  conclusion  harmonizes  with  the 
surprising  fact  reported  by  Herodotus13  and  signally  con- 

1  So  Winckler,  UAG.  p.  124  S. 

2  Possibly  a  vague  reminiscence  of  thia  state  of  things  glimmers  through 
the  account  given  by  Herodotus  ( I,  107-124  |  of  the  hostility  of  Efarpagus, 
the  trusted  minister  of  Astyages.  towards  his  master,  which  finally  led 
him  to  invite  Cyrus  to  dethrone  that  monarch. 

3  I,  127  ;  ci.  125. 


404  A   MEDO-PERSIAN   EMPIRE  Book  XI 

firmed  by  the  contemporary  scribes  of  Babylon,  that  when 
the  Medes  and  the  Persian  revolters  met,  many  of  the 
former  went  over  to  the  banner  of  Cyrus!  Only  dis- 
content with  the  home  government  can  account  for  an 
immense  army  making  terms  with  a  small  one.  And  only 
the  knowledge  of  such  a  feeling  can  account  for  the  revolt 
by  a  petty  underling  with  a  handful  of  followers  against 
the  most  powerful  empire  of  the  world.  Cyrus,  therefore, 
did  not  begin  his  matchless  career  either  as  a  foolhardy 
adventurer  or  as  a  wanton  aggressor.  The  story  goes  that 
Astyages  was  spared  and  well  treated  after  his  overthrow. 

§  1386.  Henceforth  the  world-empire  was  Medo-Persian. 
Its  moral  force  was  mainly  Persian,  but  its  population  wras 
overwhelmingly  Median  or  of  former  Median  allegiance. 
Yet  for  purposes  of  administration  it  was  soon  made  an 
absolute  unit.  Of  the  "  Scythians  "  as  a  separate  force  we 
hear  nothing  thereafter.  The  adjutants  of  Cyrus  were 
drawn  from  all  portions  of  the  empire.  Mazares,  Har- 
pagus,  and  Grobryas,  his  chief  generals,  were  Medes. 
Hyrceades,  who  took  the  lead  in  mounting  the  citadel  of 
Sardis  (§  1388),  was  an  Elamite.  The  speedy  completion 
of  the  organization  is  to  be  explained  by  assuming  that 
Cyrus  visited  the  provinces  in  person,  conciliating  the 
local  chiefs  by  his  affability,  and  choosing  with  unerring 
instinct  the  most  capable  men  as  his  governors.  Thus  first 
in  the  world's  history  was  exemplified  on  a  large  scale  the 
principle  of  delegated  power  (cf.  §  56).  He  seems  also 
to  have  established  an  efficient  intelligence  department. 

§  1387.  During  the  two  j-ears  thus  occupied  the  career 
of  the  young  conqueror  and  statesman  was  being  anxionsly 
watched  by  three  nations  —  Babylonia,  Egypt,  and  Lydia. 
Aggressive  action  was  first  taken  by  Lydia.  A  memorable 
campaign  was  undertaken  by  Croesus.  He  had  expectation 
of  help  from  Egypt,  and  a  definite  promise  from  Sparta  in 
Greece.  Seeking  an  omen  from  the  oracle  at  Delphi,  he 
received  the  famous  answer,  "  By  crossing  the  Halys  thou 
wilt  destroy  a  great  empire."     Thus  encouraged,  he  ad- 


Ch.  IV,  §  1388  WAR    MADE    BY   LYDIA  400 

vancecl  against  the  Medo-Persians  in  the  spring  of  547 
without  waiting  for  his  allies.  Cyrus,  when  informed  of 
the  movement  of  Croesus,  gathered  his  army,  crossed  the 
Tigris  below  Arbela,1  and  took  the  Mesopotamian  route 
to  Cappadocia  by  forced  marches.  Before  he  came  up 
with  the  troops  of  Croesus  they  had  occupied  the  strong 
fortress  of  Pteria,2  in  the  north  of  Cappadocia,  and  laid 
waste  the  surrounding  country.  In  that  neighbourhood  a 
desperate  but  indecisive  battle  was  fought.  Croesus,  find- 
ing the  army  of  Cyrus  unexpectedly  strong,  retired  to  Sar- 
dis,  his  capital,  to  wait  for  his  allies,  thinking  that  Cyrus 
would  not  follow  him,  in  view  of  the  difficult  terrain. 

§  1388.  In  this  Croesus  was  deceived.  In  less  than  two 
months  after  he  had  crossed  the  Tigris,3  Cyrus  marched 

1  Some  details  of  the  movements  of  Cyrus  possibly  form  part  of  the 
record  for  the  "ninth  year"  in  Nab.  Annals  (II,  15-18).  I  give  a  trans- 
lation of  the  somewhat  mutilated  passage.  "(15)  In  the  month  Nisan, 
Cyrus,  king  of  Persia,  mustered  his  troops  (16)  and  made  a  forced  pas- 
sage over  the  river  Tigris  below  Arbela.  In  the  month  Iyyar,  to  the  land 
.  .  .  (he  went).  (17)  Its  king  he  vanquished  and  seized  his  possessions. 
He  made  his  garrisons  occupy  it,  and  (18)  thenceforth  his  garrisons  and 
a  (?)  were  kept  there."  As  to  the  translation  of  the  disputed  word  i-rab 
(1.  16),  cf.  Delitzsch,  HWB.  at  3:0  II,  and  observe  that  the  rapid  Tigris 
was  at  this  season  fast  rising.  Various  conjectures  have  been  made  as 
to  line  16.  Winckler  (UAG.  p.  131)  says  that  some  little  kingdom  be- 
tween the  Tigris  and  Euphrates  is  meant.  Hagen  (BA.  II,  240)  says- 
that  "the  country  in  question  lay  not  far  from  the  Tigris  below  Arbela." 
Conjecturing  from  traces  in  the  text  as  published  by  Hagen  that  the  end 
of  the  line  might  have  been  mat  Lu-ud-di,  I  inquired  of  Mr.  Pinches  his 
latest  opinion.  The  eminent  decipherer  replied  that  after  an  examination 
in  February,  1898,  he  then  thought  that  the  passage  might  easily  read 
mat  I. a  and  a  part  of  ud,  the  rest  of  the  line  being  worn  off.  That  "  the 
laud  of  Lydia"  is  meant  is  therefore  possible.  On  other  grounds  it 
had  already  been  concluded  that  Cyrus  just  at  this  time  was  engaged 
with  CrOBSUS  (Meyer,  GA.  1,  §502  f.).  Moreover,  Nabonidus  reported 
only  the  most  important  actions  of  Cyrus  before  his  attack  on  Babylonia. 
He  had  already  noted  the  conquest  of  Media  i  §  1383),  and  lie  would  natu- 
rally mention  the  fall  of  Lydia. 

2  Near  Pteria  is  the  modern  town  of  Boghaz-keui,  where  are  the  remains 
of  a  great  fortress,  with  Bettite  sculptures  on  the  walls  of  rock. 

:i  Assuming,  meanwhile,  that  Nab.  Annals,  II,  16  (see  note  above),  is  to 
be  referred  hither. 


406  SUBJECTION   OF   LYDIANS   AND   GREEKS      Book  XI 

direct  upon  Sardis,  and  before  the  autumn  was  over,  the 
capital  and  the  kingdom  were  in  his  hands.  The  Lydian 
troops  having  been  defeated  before  the  city,  it  was  invested 
by  Cyrus,  and  in  fourteen  days  it  was  taken  by  a  stratagem 
similar  to  that  employed  in  the  capture  of  Quebec.  A 
story  is  told 1  to  the  effect  that  Cyrus  had  prepared  to  burn 
Croesus  alive,  that  the  pyre  was  raised,  the  tire  kindled,  and 
then  extinguished  by  a  miraculous  shower.  The  cruelty 
of  the  tale  has  gained  credence  in  recent  times  from  no 
less  an  authority  than  Noldeke.2  But  Cyrus  was,  at  all 
events,  neither  superstitious  nor  whimsical,  and  the  credible 
tradition  3  that  Croesus  was  spared  and  honoured  by  him 
during  the  rest  of  his  life  is  inconsistent  with  the  underly- 
ing motive  of  the  story. 

§  1389.  Sardis  became  the  permanent  centre  of  Persian 
power  in  the  West.  But  of  greater  ultimate  consequence 
was  the  annexation  of  the  Greek  cities  and  colonies  de- 
pendent upon  Lydia,  for  thereby  came  about  the  Grseco- 
Persian  wars  that  shook  the  world.  Cyrus  himself  did 
not  remain  longer  than  was  necessary  to  direct  the  plans 
for  organizing  the  new  realm.  The  Median  Harpagus 
made  the  Greek  settlements  secure.  To  him  the  Ionians, 
the  Carians,  and  finally  the  Lycians,  submitted.  The  king 
of  Cilicia  became  voluntarily  a  Persian  vassal,  and  the 
same    thing   is    related   of    the    princes    of    Paphlagonia.4 

1  By  Herodotus  (I,  87),  whose  narrative,  as  that  of  a  resident  of  the 
coastland,  may  be  relied  upon  for  the  leading  historical  events,  but  not 
for  stories  in  which  religious  credulity  may  be  suspected. 

2  Art.  "Persia"  in  the  Encyi.  Br.  (Vol.  XVIII.  p.  566)  by  Noldeke  and 
Gutschmid,  who  can  find  no  better  terra  to  describe  Cyrus  than  "a  sav- 
age conqueror."  Much  more  just  is  the  eulogium  of  the  greatest  of  Ori- 
ental historians  (Meyer,  GA.  I.  §  506).  Cf.  the  judgment  of  Duncker, 
History  of  Antiquity  (tr.  by  Abbot),  VI,  128  ff.  The  attempted  crema- 
tion, Duncker  (VI,  42  f.),  followed  by  Meyer  (GA.  I,  §  503),  interprets  as 
self-immolation  on  the  part  of  Crcesus. 

3  In  which  Herodotus  from  Lydian,  and  Ctesias  from  Persian,  sources 
agree.  The  latter  says  that  Cyrus  allotted  to  Crcesus  a  manor  near  the 
Median  capital  Ecbatana. 

4  Cf.  the  summary  in  Meyer,  GA.  I,  §  503. 


Cir.  IV,  §  1389  EAST   IRAN   MADE   PERSIAN  407 

Cyrus  meanwhile  returned  to  the  East,  and  soon  all  of  east 
Iran  (§  1374)  was  attached  to  his  rule.  With  the  sub- 
jection of  Baktria  he  became  the  recognized  head  of  the 
Iranian  peoples.  Among  them  little  coercion  was  needed. 
Yet  their  organization  and  protection  from  border  tribes 
of  the  north  required  time,  patience,  and  skill.  To  these 
eastern  provinces,  the  proper  home  of  his  own  race,  Cyrus 
devoted  some  of  the  best  years  of  his  life  ;  though  his 
deeds  which  moved  the  civilized  world  were  performed 
in  other  regions. 


CHAPTER  V 

CYRUS    KING   OF   BABYLON 

§  1390.  The  empire  of  Cyrus  now  extended  from  the 
river  Indus  to  the  ^Egean  Sea,  the  whole  of  the  settled 
part  of  it  having  fallen  to  him  in  three  years  (550-547). 
Still  more  marvellous  than  the  rapidity  of  acquisition  was 
the  manner  of  it.  By  the  happiest  fortune  he  had  been 
spared  the  need  of  fighting  many  battles,  and  had  never 
appeared  in  them  as  an  oppressor.  Even  the  subjection 
of  the  Greek  cities  was  a  part  of  the  reduction  of  Lydia. 
That  he  burned  no  captured  cities  and  villages  and  that 
he  sought  to  protect  their  inhabitants  instead  of  making 
slaves  of  them,1  was  also  something  new  and  welcome. 
It  seems  to  have  been  appreciated  by  the  subject  peoples, 
for  we  hear  of  but  few  insurrections  during  his  lifetime. 
Thus  lie  played  the  role  of  a  deliverer,  such  as  that  as- 
signed to  him  in  the  Hebrew  prophecy  of  his  time. 

§  1391.  It  is  not  quite  certain  how  the  war  with  Baby- 
lon was  directly  occasioned.  According  to  the  most 
probable  data  it  was  not  undertaken  till  eight  years  after 
the  conquest  of  Lydia.  By  all  precedent,  it  ought  to 
have  begun  immediately,  since  Babylon  had  been  in  al- 
liance with  Crcesus,  and  the  seizure  of  the  whole  empire 
of  Nabonidus,  except  a  few  fortified  cities,  could  have 
been  possible  at  any  time.     It  is  clear  that  the  generals 

1  We  have  no  authentic  details  except  with  regard  to  Bahylon.  We 
have,  however,  results.  Besides,  what  he  did  in  Babylon  (§  1395)  he  nat- 
urally did  elsewhere. 

408 


Ch.  V,  §1392  POLICY   OF   NABONIDUS  409 

of  Cyrus  were  held  back,  during  these  years,  from  descend- 
ing upon  the  fertile  and  wealthy  provinces  that  had  been 
the  spoil  of  invaders  from  time  immemorial. 

§  1392.  Of  the  internal  condition  of  Babylonia  during 
the  closing  j-ears  of  the  reign  of  Nabonidus,  we  gain  some 
hints  from  the  king's  own  records.1  In  his  ninth  year  (547) 
the  death  of  his  mother  is  recorded.  Belshazzar,  in  com- 
mand of  the  army,  and  his  men  bewailed  her  three  days, 
and  an  official  mourning  was  also  proclaimed  in  Akkad,  or 
the  district  of  north  Babylonia.  In  the  same  year,  as  also 
in  the  seventh,  tenth,  and  eleventh,  the  entry  is  made  : 
"  King  Nabonidus  was  in  Tenia ;  the  king's  son,  the  mag- 
nates, and  the  army  were  in  Akkad.  The  king  did  not 
come  to  Babjdon  for  Nisan.  Nebo  did  not  go  to  Babylon, 
the  New  Year's  feast  wras  not  held."  The  significance  of 
these  statements  is  obvious  (cf.  §  1371  f.).  The  king  did 
not  show  any  interest  either  in  the  affairs  of  the  capital 
or  in  the  defence  of  the  country.  Of  that  religion  which 
was  the  strength  and  pride  of  Babylon,  the  New  Year's 
feast  was  the  crown.  On  this  day  Nebo  was  brought  from 
his  temple  in  Borsippa  to  Babylon,  and  there  led  along  the 
streets  by  a  prescribed  route,  in  solemn  procession.  That 
Nabonidus  should  habitually  ignore  this  ceremoii}*,  and 
thereby  occasion  its  discontinuance,  was  a  direct  affront  to 
the  state  religion,  and  an  act  of  folly  on  his  part  which 
foreboded  destruction.2  The  popularity  which  he  had  at 
first  gained  in  the  provincial  cities  (§  1372)  at  length 
changed  to  indifference  ;  while  in  the  capital  a  feeling  of 
resentment  was  aroused  which  Avas  the  forerunner  of  re- 
bellion. There  is  abundant  evidence  that  the  priesthood 
of  Babylon  were  more  loyal  to  their  profession  and  their 

1  Nab.  Annals,  col.  II  and  III.  The  entries  for  only  a  few  years  have 
been  well  preserved.  Fur  the  eighth  year  (548)  no  record  was  made. 
The  eventful  seventeenth  (539)  is  recorded  with  greal  minuteness,  the 
work  having  been  i ipleted  after  the  king's  deposition. 

2  The.  records  themselves,  primarily  minuted  by  officials  of  Nabonidus, 
indicate  the  discontent.     Forthe  grand  ceremony  see  RBA.  i>.  078  f. 


410  NABONIDUS   TO   BE    SUPPLANTED  Book  XI 

craft  than  to  any  existing  government  (cf.  §  660).  It 
would  have  been  easy  to  get  the  king  out  of  the  way,  and 
Belshazzar  was  a  man  of  character  who  would  make  a 
strong  ruler  in  his  place.  Deeper  designs,  however,  were 
cherished  by  these  leaders  in  Babylon  and  Borsippa.  The 
existing  regime  must  be  subverted,  and  who  so  worthy  a 
successor  as  the  tolerant  and  genial  Cyrus?  Of  such  a 
feeling  Cyrus  was  perhaps  made  aware. 

§  1393.  On  this  subject  we  may  hear  the  scribes  of  Cyrus 
himself.  In  an  inscription  written1  after  his  occupation 
of  Babylon,  they  say  of  Nabonidus  that  he  neglected  the 
sacrifices  of  the  gods,  did  despite  to  Merodach  himself, 
and  oppressed  his  subjects,  so  that  the  gods  abandoned 
their  seats  in  anger.  They  then  continue :  "  Merodach 
took  compassion  on  the  people  of  Simmer  and  Akkad, 
who  had  become  like  unto  dead  men.  In  all  the  nations 
he  looked  over  his  friends,  seeking  a  righteous  prince 
after  his  own  heart,  to  take  by  his  hand.  '  Cyrus,  king 
of  Anshan,'  he  called  his  name,  nominating  him  to  uni- 
versal sovereignty.  The  land  of  Gutium,  the  whole  of  the 
wide-spreading  hordes,  he  subdued  to  his  feet.  The  people 
of  mankind,  whom  he  gave  into  his  hands,  he  cared  for 
in  justice  and  equity.  Merodach,  the  great  lord,  the 
protector  of  his  people,  beheld  with  joy  his  generous 
deeds   and   his   righteous   heart,  and   bade   him    take    the 

1  Upon  a  cylinder  now  in  the  British  Museum  which  was  published 
in  1880,  in  JRAS.,  by  Sir  Henry  Rawlinson,  and  by  Pinches  in  V  P.  35. 
It  has  also  been  given  in  Abel  and  Winckler*s  Keilschrifttezte  (1890), 
and  finally  in  the  most  exact  form  by  Hagen  in  BA.  II  (1894 1  as 
an  appendix  to  his  treatise,  "  Cyrus-Texte."  Translations  and  tran- 
scriptions are  given  by  Hagen  and  also  in  KB.  III.  ii  (1890),  p.  120-127 
by  Schrader.  Cf.  Delitzsch  in  BA.  II,  248  ff.  and  the  art.  "  Cyrus"'  by 
King  in  EB..  §09.  I  cite  it  for  convenience  as  VI!.  35.  A  brief  inscription 
found  in  1850  by  Loftus  at  Warka  (Erech)  is  published  by  Hagen,  BA. 
II.  257.  It  runs  :  ••  Cyrus,  rebuilder  of  Esagila  and  Ezida,  son  of  Caui- 
byses,  the  mighty  king,  I  am."  Very  many  contract  tablets  have  been 
found  nt  the  reign  of  Cyrus.  Those  in  the  British  Museum  are  published 
by  Strassmaier,  Inschriften  van  Cyrus  (1890).  For  others  see  Peiser, 
Keilschriftliche  Aktenstiicke  (1889)  and  Babyl.  Vortrage  (1890). 


Ch.  V,  §  1395   FALL  OF  BABYLON  RECORDED  411 

road  to  Babylon,  going  by  his  side  as  a  friend  and  com- 
panion." 1 

§  1394.  Turning  now  to  the  annals  of  Nabonidus,  we 
see  that  in  539,  the  year  of  the  march  of  Cyrus  upon  Baby- 
lon, a  great  change  came  over  the  spirit  of  the  roi  faine- 
ant. Nebo  came  from  Borsippa  to  Babylon  (§  1392).  Bel 
went  out  to  join  him  in  procession.  The  New  Year's  feast 
was  celebrated  "as  was  proper."  But  this  was  not  enough. 
Whereas  formerly  Merodach  and  Nebo  had  been  slighted, 
and  the  provincial  deities  honoured  with  rebuilt  and  re- 
dedicated  shrines,  now  the  images  of  those  favoured  gods 
were  dragged  from  their  seats  to  Babylon,  and  implored 
to  protect  the  threatened  capital. 

§  1395.  But  the  presence  of  all  the  gods  and  their  pro- 
pitiation were  a  vain  reliance  (cf.  Isa.  xlvi.  1  ff.).  Hear 
the  next  statement  of  the  chronicle : 2  "  In  the  month 
Tammuz  (July),  when  Cyrus  gave  battle  to  the  troops  of 
Akkad  in  Opis  by  the  stream  Zalzallat,3  he  overcame  the 
men  of  Akkad.  Wherever  they  gathered  he  vanquished 
them.  On  the  14th  day  Sippar  was  taken  without  a  battle. 
Nabonidus  took  to  flight.  On  the  16th  day  Gobrvas 
(f^yharu),  the  prefect  of  Gutium,  and  the  troops  of  Cy- 
rus, without  a  battle,  entered  Babylon.  Nabonidus,  while 
looking  behind  him,4  was  taken  prisoner.  Till  the  end  of 
the  month  the  shields  of  Gutium  surrounded  the  gates  of 
Esagila ;  no  one's  weapon  came  into  Esagila  or  into  the 
sanctuaries  ;  nor  was  any  ensign  advanced.  In  Marchesvan, 
on  the  third  day,  Cyrus  entered  Babylon."  A  few  words 
from  Cyrus  himself  describe  the  conclusion  of  the  cam- 

1  VR.  35,  7-15.     For  parallels  with  Isaiah  II  see  §  1411  and  note. 

2  Nab.  Annals,  1.  12-18. 

8  Hagen  understands  u  ("and")  before  the  word  for  "stream,"  and 
thinks  of  two  localities  and  two  distinct  engagements  (HA.  II,  222  f., 
243  f.).  He  is  probahly  in  error.  It  is  not  necessary  to  limit  Upe  to  the 
mere  city  of  Opis.  The  district  of  Opis  is  meant  ;  notice  the  determina- 
tive ki  "place,"  not  al  "city."  A  single  locality  only  is  therefore  to  be 
assumed.      Hagen  is  right  in  thinking  that  Zalzallat  is  a  canal. 

4  Compared  by  Hagen  with  Gen.  xix.  17,  26. 


412  THE    CAMPAIGN    IX    DETAIL  Book  XI 

paign :  "  His  wide-spreading  host,  whose  numbers  like 
the  waters  of  a  river  were  not  known,  girt  with  their 
weapons,  march  by  his  side.  Without  conflict  or  battle 
he  (Merodaeh)  made  him  enter  Babylon,  his  city.  Baby- 
lon he  spared  from  harsh  treatment.  Nabonidus,  the  king, 
who  did  not  fear  him,  he  delivered  into  his  hand.  The 
people  of  Babylon,  all  of  them,  and  the  whole  of  Shumer 
and  Akkad,  magnates  and  magistrates,  bent  low  before 
him,  and  kissed  his  feet.  They  rejoiced  in  his  sovereignty ; 
their  faces  beamed  delight.  The  Lord,  who  through  his 
might  gives  life  to  the  dead,  who  spares  all  from  destruc- 
tion and  (?),  they  blessed  with  rejoicing ;  they  honoured  his 
name."  x 

§  1396.  A  few  words  of  comment  will  make  the  whole 
situation  clear.  This  campaign  of  Cyrus  is  one  of  the 
marvels  of  history.  As  was  its  wont,  his  army  marched 
suddenly,  swiftly,  and  in  perfect  discipline.  There  was 
thus  the  less  opposition,  the  less  fighting,  the  less  destruc- 
tion of  life,  and  the  greater  chance  of  an  early  peace  and 
conciliation.  Every  movement  was  carefully  planned 
beforehand.  The  force  was  mobilized  in  Gutium,  which 
had  become  thoroughly  Persian.  Thence  it  moved  south- 
westward  till  it  reached  the  Tigris  near  Opis,  or  the  north- 
east border  of  the  Babylonia  of  that  day.  There  the  troops 
of  Belshazzar,  mainly  drawn  from  Akkad  —  for  the  people 
of  Shumer  (§  110),  that  is,  the  country  around  the  capital, 
had  no  mind  to  resist — ventured  to  oppose  the  invaders  at  a 
point  where  a  canal  leaves  the  Tigris.  They  were  defeated 
and  scattered.  This  was  the  only  battle  of  the  campaign. 
Sippar,  about  foily-flve  miles  southwestward,  was  entered 
without  opposition.  The  capital  was  over  fifty  miles  distant. 
In  two  days2  it  also  surrendered  without  a  blow  being  struck. 
Belshazzar  was  probably  captured  at  the  battle  of  Opis. 
Nabonidus,  who  had  roused  himself  and  gone  northward 

i  vi!.  35,  16-19. 

-  An  instance  of  the  mobility  of  the  armies  of  Cyras.  The  campaign 
seems  to  have  lasted  less  than  a  week. 


Ch.  V,  §1397  THE   NEW   REGIME  413 

to  be  with  or  near  the  army  of  defence,  fled  to  Babylon  at 
the  surrender  of  Sippar  ;  but  while  hesitating  about  further 
flight  was  captured,  presumably  in  his  own  palace  grounds.1 
The  fortifications  of  Nebuchadrezzar  (  §  1058),  which  could 
have  held  out  long  against  an}r  army  of  the  time,  were  as 
if  they  had  not  been.  The  mighty  gates  were  thrown 
open  and  a  welcome  given  to  the  army  of  Cyrus.  The 
army  had  been  in  part,  at  least,  loyal  to  the  king;  but  after 
its  defeat,  a  popular  uprising  confirmed  the  wiser  choice  of 
the  priesthood  (§  1392). 

§  1397.  It  is  not  certain  that  Cyrus  was  with  the  army 
at  any  time  during  the  actual  campaign.  But  his  ruling- 
purpose  was  shown  at  its  close  as  well  as  through  its  course. 
At  once  his  policy  was  announced.  "Peace  was  secured  for 
the  city.  Cyrus  proclaimed  peace  to  all  Babylonia."2  But 
he  himself  did  not  appear  in  Babjdon  till  three  months 
and  a  half  after  the  surrender.  Meanwhile  things  took 
their  course  in  the  city  as  before.  Neither  sacred  nor 
secular  business  was  interrupted.  The  general  Gobryas 
was  entrusted  with  the  appointment  of  royal  prefects.3 
How  much  further  the  civil  administration  was  changed 
we  are  not  informed.  Babylonia,  however,  was  not 
treated  as  a  province.  Cyrus  was  really  an  emperor  with 
at  least  two  distinct  kingdoms,  and  he  ruled  Babylonia 
immediately  as  its  king.  The  contract  tablets,  while 
indicating  this  principal  fact,  give  no  hint  of  the  rule  of 
petty  Persian  officials  during  his  reign.  There  was,  of 
necessity,  a  court.     Cyrus  himself  sometimes  resided  here 

1  So  far  as  made  out  the  contemporary  documents  throw  no  further 
lighl  upon  the  final  fate  of  Nabonidus  ami  his  son.  According  to  Beros- 
SU8,  ( lyrus  granted  a  handsome  residence  in  <  larmania  t<  >  Nabonidus  for  the 
rest  of  his  days.  A  slightly  mutilated  passage  in  Nab.  Annuls  (I.  •_'■_'  f. ) 
appears  i"  say  thai  "the  son  of  the  king  died."  This,  however,  is  not 
quite  certain.  If  Belshazzar's  death  is  really  there  recorded,  it  took  place 
during  the  same  year.  The  Belshazzar,  son  of  Nebuchadrezzar,  of  the 
book  of  Daniel,  is  doubtless  tin'  son  of  Nabonidus  of  tin-  cuneiform  texts, 
But  the  story  of  ch.  v.  finds  no  confirmation  in  the  records  of  the  time. 

2  Nab.  Annals,  III,  19  f.  a  Nab.  Annals,  III,  20. 


414  RELIGIOUS   AND   POLITICAL   SEQUEL  Book  XI 

and  sometimes  in  Ecbatana,  when  his  movements  per- 
mitted him  to  live  quietly  anywhere.1  He  made  Baby- 
lon at  once  a  permanent  seat  of  empire  by  having 
(  ambyses,  his  son,  consecrated  as  his  heir  by  the  priests 
of  Merodach.2 

§  13D8.  We  know  more  about  the  religious  than  the 
political  life  of  Babylon  after  the  surrender.  Cyrus 
ordained  not  merely  that  the  native  religion  should  be 
tolerated  and  respected,  but  that  it  should  be  encouraged 
by  his  officers.  It  was,  in  fact,  formally  made  the  state 
religion  of  the  kingdom.  He  himself  appears  as  a  wor- 
shipper, not  merely  of  Merodach,  but  of  the  gods  of  Baby- 
lonia generally.  He  was  indignant  at  the  sacrilege 
committed  by  Nabonidus  in  dragging  them  from  their 
seats  and  deporting  them  to  the  capital,  and  ordered  them 
to  be  restored  to  their  proper  shrines.3  The  propitiation 
of  the  gods  of  Babylonia  and  his  acknowledgment  of  their 
sovereignty  he  thus  made  his  prime  duty  and  privilege  as 
king  of  the  country  (cf.  §  1-416). 

§  1309.  Finally,  we  note  his  treatment  of  foreign  slaves 
and  exiles,  of  whom  there  were  many  in  Babylonia.  His 
proclamation  giving  permission  to  the  Plebrews  to  return 
to  their  homes  and  their  God  we  learn  of  from  the  book  of 
Ezra  (ch.  i.).  It  is  pleasing  to  know  that  this  boon  was 
not  conferred  upon  them  alone.  He  himself  tells  us  of 
cities  as  far  as  the  border  of  Gutiuin  whose  gods  and  peo- 
ple alike  had  been  deported  to  Babylon.  Now  both  the 
one  and  the  other  were  restored :  "  The  gods  who  inhabit 
them  I  restored  to  their  seats,  and  made  for  them  a  dwell- 
ing-place there  forever.  All  of  their  people  I  gathered  and 
restored  to  their  homes  "  4  (cf.  §  1415). 


1  Traditions  seem  to  agree  that  Cyrus  was  busily  occupied  in  the  east- 
ern provinces  towards  the  close  of  his  life.  But  even  the  place  and  man- 
ner of  his  death  cannot  be  confidently  stated. 

2  Cf.  V  B.  35,  27.  35,  and  Nab.  Annals,  III,  24  ff. 

3  V  B.  35,  6.  32  f.     Cf.  Nab.  Annals,  III,  21  f. 
*VB.  35,  31  f. 


CHAPTER   VI 

PROPHETIC    IDEALS 

§  1400.  In  a  very  real  sense  Israel  in  Babylonia  began 
anew  its  spiritual  life.  There  in  servitude  it  was  taught 
elementary  lessons  which  it  could  never  have  learned  in 
freedom.  Its  prison-house  was  from  the  very  beginning 
its  nursery,  and  was  soon  made  its  school.  There  its 
teachers,  too,  were  trained  ;  there  they  were  broadened, 
deepened,  and  lifted  above  themselves,  their  people,  their 
times,  and  the  world  itself.  The  moral  influences  of 
the  Exile  (§  1313  ff. )  had  been  acting  long  before  the 
imagination  of  even  the  seers  was  fully  awakened.  It 
was  the  death  of  Nebuchadrezzar  and  the  succeeding  com- 
motions which  stirred  the  smouldering  prophetic  fire  ;  and 
then  it  flamed  forth  brighter  than  ever.  New  thoughts 
were  given  forth  in  the  noblest  forms  of  poetic  oratorv : 
new  conceptions  of  Jehovah,  of  his  might  and  providence 
and  purpose,  of  the  destiny  of  Israel  and  the  world. 

§  1401.  The  reign  of  Nebuchadrezzar  had  been  so  long 
and  imperious  that  the  Hebrew  exiles  thought  of  deliver- 
ance as  an  event  in  the  indefinite  future.  But  when  he  died, 
there  was,  after  the  manner  of  the  ancient  East,  unrest  and 
anxiety  everywhere.  Evidences  of  the  inherent  weakness 
of  Chakheism  soon  appeared  and  multiplied.  The  ensuing 
conspiracies  and  revolutions  (§  1369  f.)  could  not  but  con- 
firm distrust,  and  the  character  and  habits  of  Nabonidus 
(§  1371  f.)  added  thereto.  It  Avas  probably  early  in  his 
reign  that  Isa.  xiii.-xiv.  23  was  written  and  circulated 
privately  among  the  exiles.  It  has  for  its  theme  the 
destruction  of  Babylon  by  the  Medes,  and  was  apparently 
suggested  by  the  aggressive  spirit  manifested  by  that  people 

415 


41(3  PROPHECY   OF   THE   MEDES  Book  XI 

when  under  "Scythian"  control  (§  1384).  We  know 
from  Nabonidus  that  the  northern  frontier  of  Babylonia 
was  harassed  by  subjects  of  Astyages  (§  1382  f.),  and  that 
it  was  not  till  Cyrus  intervened  that  relief  was  given.  The 
popular  dread  of  them  was  reflected  in  that  felt  by  Naboni- 
dus himself.  That  this  and  no  later  date  is  that  of  the  proph- 
ecy is  probable  (1)  because  the  Medes1and  not  the  Persians 
are  referred  to  as  the  enemies  of  Babylon,  and  (2)  because 
the  mode  of  warfare  ascribed  to  the  aggressors  (xiii.  15  ff.) 
was  not  that  of  the  armies  of  Cyrus,  but  rather  that  which 
would  be  naturally  expected  from  Scythian  hordes ;  (3)  be- 
cause the  invaders  are  said  (xiii.  5)  to  "  come  from  a  far 
country,  from  the  remotest  horizon,"  an  expression  inap- 
plicable to  the  Medo-Persian  forces  (see  §  1390). 

§  1402.  The  predictive  portions  of  this  majestic  dis- 
course show  strong  assurance  of  the  ruin  and  desolation  of 
Babylon  (xiii.  19-22)  and  of  the  restoration  of  Israel  to 
its  own  land  (xiv.  1,  2,  22,  23).  But  more  significant  is 
the  characterization  of  the  Babylonian  world-power,  which 
is  given  with  such  lyrical  splendour  in  the  ode  inserted  in 
the  prophecy  proper.  It  was  not  merely  the  Chaldsean  regime 
of  the  time  that  was  in  the  mind  of  the  poet.  When,  in  the 
most  dramatic  passage  of  the  Old  Testament,  he  pictures 
the  oppressor  of  the  nations  quelled  at  last  b}^  death,  and 
his  former  vassals  in  all  the  pacified  earth  rejoicing  in  their 
deliverance,  and  all  the  dead  tyrants  starting  up  with 
incredulous  surprise  as  the  king  of  kings  comes  to  join  his 
peers  in  Sheol,  he  is  thinking  of  the  historic  tyranny  of 
Assyria  and  Babylonia  meeting  its  long-delayed,  divinely 
predestined  doom :  "  How  is  the  oppressor  ceased,  the  rag- 
ing stilled !  Jehovah  hath  broken  the  rod  of  the  wicked, 
the  sceptre  of  the  rulers,  that  smote  the  peoples  in  fury 

1  No  contemporary  writer,  as  far  as  we  know,  refers  to  the  Persians  as 
Medes.  In  Isa.  xxi.  2  the  Medes  are  mentioned,  but  as  forming  part  of 
the  forces  of  Cyrus  (see  §  1404).  It  is  inconceivable  that  both  the  tower- 
ing personality  of  Cyrus  and  the  race  to  which  he  belonged  could  be 
omitted  in  a  prophecy  of  deliverance  written  after  547  b.c. 


Cn.  VI,  §  1403  FALL   OF   THE   TYRANT  417 

with  unceasing  blows,  that  played  the  tyrant  over  the 
nations,  treacling  them  down  without  restraint.  The 
whole  earth  is  now  at  rest  and  quiet;  it  breaks  forth  into 
singing.  .  .  .  Thy  pomp  is  brought  down  to  the  shades 
and  the  sounding  of  thy  viols.  .  .  .  How  art  thou  fallen 
from  heaven,  O  Day-star,  son  of  the  morning !  How  art 
thou  hewn  down  to  the  ground,  who  didst  lay  low  the 
nations !  And  thou  saidst  in  thy  heart,  'I  will  ascend  into 
heaven ;  I  will  exalt  my  throne  above  the  stars  of  God ;  I 
will  sit  upon  the  mountain  of  assembly  in  the  recesses  of 
the  north.1  I  will  ascend  above  the  heights  of  the  clouds ; 
I  shall  be  like  the  Most  High.'  .  .  .  They  that  see  thee 
shall  look  narrowly  at  thee,  and  stare  at  thee  :  'Is  this  the 
man  that  made  the  earth  to  tremble,  that  did  shake  king- 
doms, that  made  the  world  a  desert  and  overthrew  the 
cities  thereof,  that  let  not  loose  his  prisoners  to  their 
homes?'"  (xiv.  4  ff.). 

§  1403.  Of  an  entirely  different  literary  type  is  a  long 
discourse  (Jer.  1.  1-li.  58),  indicating  clearly  the  same 
historical  situation.  Apparently  on  account  of  some 
resemblance  in  style,  it  has  been  annexed  to  the  genuine 
prophecies  of  Jeremiah.  Here  again  the  Medes  are  named 
as  more  specifically  "-the  kings  of  the  Medes"  (li.  11,  28; 
cf.  1.  41),  a  phrase  which  points  to  the  semi-independent 
nomad  chiefs  of  the  later  Median  times.  More  definitely 
still  the  aggressors  are  said  to  be  coming  from  the  north 
country,2  and  to  be  a  gathering  of  great  nations  (1.  9,  41), 
for  instance,  "  the  kingdoms  of  Ararat,  of  Van,  and  of  Ash- 
kenaz  " 3  (li.  27),  such  as  belonged  to  the  half-organized 

1  That  is,  in  the  north  pole  of  the  heavens,  the  seat  of  the  chief  of  the 
gods,  Anu  (Jensen,  Kosmologie,  p.  22  f.).  Cf.  Ez.  i.  4,  also  written  in 
Babylonia,  but  not  Vs.  xlviii.  '■). 

2  Contrast  Cyrus  and  the  Persians,  who  are  said  to  come  from  "the 
east"  (Isa.  xli.  2  ;  x!vi.  11). 

'■'■  For  Van  (Manual  F.V .  "Minni")  see  §  758,  where  its  association 
with  the  Medes  is  pointed  out.  Ashkenaz  is  the  Ashgus  of  II  R.  45,  col. 
If,  20  (Esarhaddon).  See  Delitzsch  in  Baer's  text  of  Daniel,  p.  IX,  and 
KAT.2p.  010. 


418  BABYLONIA.   MEDIA,   AND   ELAM  Book  XI 

empire  of  Media  before  the  day  of  Cyrus.  The  general 
tone  of  the  prophecy  is  bitter  and  vengeful  like  Isa.  xiii., 
and  thus  differs  from  the  impartial  temper  of  Isa. 
xl.-lv..  and  the  more  genial  Persian  era.  Nebuchad- 
rezzar himself  (Jeremiah's  "servant  of  Jehovah")  is  here 
represented  as  a  lion  that  crunched  the  bones  of  the 
hunted  sheep,  Israel,  after  another  lion,  Assyria,  had 
devoured  his  flesh  (1.  17).  Hence  vengeance  is  to  be 
taken  upon  "the  king  of  Babylon"  (1.  18).  That  the 
author  wrote  in  Babylonia  is  shown  by  his  intimate  know- 
ledge of  the  country.1 

§  1404.  Another  prophecy  (Isa.  xxi.  1-10)  intervenes 
between  the  Median  period  and  the  fulness  of  the  time  of 
Cyrus.  The  standpoint  of  the  author  clearly  appears  in 
v.  2 :  "Go  up,  Elam !  lay  siege,  Media  !  "  Here  " Elam  " 
is  used  by  synecdoche  for  Anshan  (§  1378),  before  the 
title  "  king  of  Persia  "  had  been  assumed  by  Cyrus.2  The 
discourse  is  intensely  dramatic.  The  prophet  sees  in  vision 
the  siege  of  Babylon  by  the  Persians  and  Medes  (vs.  1,  2). 
The  approaching  catastrophe  stuns  him  with  its  magnitude 
(vs.  3,  4).  The  anxiety  as  to  the  result  is  pictured  in  the 
successive  reports  of  a  watchman,  who  finally  answers : 
"  Babylon  is  fallen,  is  fallen  "  (vs.  5-9).  The  issue  is  then 
declared  to  the  prophet's  interested  people.  One  cannot 
but  feel  that  as  the  fall  of  Babylon  approaches,  the  word 
of  prophecy,  in  whatever  form  it  may  be  uttered,  becomes 
more  sober  and  dio-nifled.3 


1  Thus  he  not  only  refers  to  Pekod  (§  335).  but  to  the  "  salt  sea  land  " 
Marratim  (1.  21).  that  portion  of  Babylonia  washed  by  the  Persian  Gulf. 
Par.  p.  182.  Remarkable  are  the  cases  of  the  so-called  Athbash,  in 
which  the  last  letter  of  the  alphabet  is  put  for  the  first,  the  second-last 
for  the  second,  and  so  on.  Thus  in  li.  1  'Dp  ab  is  put  for  d-hbo  ••  Chahhea." 
and  in  li.  41  -\vv  is  put  for  ^22  "Babylon"  as  in  xxv.  26.  The  use  of 
cryptic  writing  was  learned  from  the  practice  of  the  Babylonian  schools. 

2  That  is,  547  b.c.  ;  see  Nab.  Annals,  II,  15  (§  1387,  note). 

3  Isa.  xxxiv.  should  be  mentioned  here,  though  its  subject  is  not  Baby- 
lonia, but  Edom.  It  is  very  rancorous  in  tone,  a  feature  which  is  no  good 
indication  of  the  time  of  composition,  since  the  enmity  between  Judah 


Ch.  VI,  §  1405  THE    SECOND    "ISAIAH"  419 

§  1405.  The  destruction  of  Babylon  is  the  prevailing 
theme  in  the  compositions  which  have  just  been  considered. 
But  in  the  last  and  greatest  work  of  the  Exile  this  event 
is  less  prominent  and  is  overshadowed  by  its  consequences 
with  the  new  perspective  of  divine  revelation  which  it 
opened  up.  The  author,  whose  writings  for  this  period 
include  at  least  Isa.  xl.-lv.,  composed  these  discourses 
shortly  before  539  B.C.  To  him  the  consummation  is 
close  at  hand.  It  is  so  near  and  sure  that  he  sees 
through  and  beyond  it.  It  is  to  him  no  longer  an  object, 
but  a  medium  of  vision.  Such  indeed  are  all  the  events  of 
his  fateful  time  that  touched  the  fortunes  of  his  people.  He 
is  thus  above  all  else  a  seer,  the  seer  of  a  new  and  larger 
Israel.  But  he  is  more  than  this,  he  is  the  crown  and  flower 
of  Hebrew  prophecy.  His  supremacy  was  due  in  part  to 
what  he  was  in  himself,  and  in  part  to  his  age  and  environ- 
ment. He  lived  in  the  time  of  the  greatest  prophetic 
opportunity.  He  had  the  wider  vision,  not  merely  because 
he  stood  on  the  shoulders  of  Isaiah  and  Jeremiah,  but  also 
because  he  had  seen  more  of  God's  world  than  they.  Intel- 
lectually he  is  a  product  of  two  kindred  but  divergent 
civilizations.  A  pupil  of  the  school  that  cherished  the 
past  of  their  country  as  only  exiles  can,  he  throws  himself 
into  line  with  the  great  motives  of  Israel's  divinely 
ordained  career  (ch.  xliii.  3  ff. ;  xlix.  5  ff.).  But  he  can 
also  follow  the  great  world-forces,  and  sees  as  no  native 
Palestinian  could,  how  these  apparently  diverging  ten- 
dencies meet  at  last  in  the  harmony  of  universal  subjec- 
tion to  Jehovah's  reign.  To  use  an  astronomical  figure, 
his  visions  were  truer  because  their  parallax  was  less,  since 
they  were  made  from  the  centre  of  the  earth.  Thus  Baby- 
lonia prepared  him  to  become  the  herald  of  a  universal 

and  Edom  was  ineradicable  and  perpetual.  Ps.  exxxvii.  and  Ez.  xxxv. 
might  suggest  the  time  of  the  Exile  ;  but  the  composite  Obadiah  and  Mai. 
i.  2  ff.  warn  us  to  be  cautious  here.  Isa.  xxxv.  has  nothing  to  do  with 
xxxiv.  It  is  a  hymn  appended  to  the  works  of  Isaiah  ;  but  its  tone  and 
resemblance  to  Isa.  xl.  ff.  suggest  the  end  of  the  Exile  as  its  date. 


420  CULTURE   AND   STYLE   OF   THE   PROPHET     Book  XI 

providence.  But  this  was  not  all.  He  had  a  rare  educa- 
tion. His  easy  mastery  of  all  his  themes,  his  imperious 
command  of  the  forms  of  speech,  his  happy  geniality,  his 
tolerance  and  breadth  of  sympathy,  were  not  merely  the 
result  of  long  study  and  reflection,  but  of  wide  and  close 
observation  added  to  native  endowment.  He  was  espe- 
cially familiar  with  Babylonian  life  and  customs  (ch.  xli.  7 ; 
xliii.  14;  xlvi.  1  ff;  xlvii.  2,  12  f.).  He  knew  the  contents 
of  historical  inscriptions  (§  1411).  But  most  of  all  is  his 
Babylonian  home  revealed  in  his  style  and  in  his  literary 
allusions.  His  discourse,  serene,  affluent,  and  glowing,  is 
an  image  of  a  Babylonian  landscape.  As  it  unrolls  itself, 
we  think  of  fields  and  gardens  and  stately  palms  and  bend- 
ing willows  and  gently  flowing  streams,  stretching  away 
over  an  ample  plain,  and  all  standing  out  clear  in  the  light 
of  a  cloudless  sky. 

§  1406.  What  impresses  one  most  in  the  writings  of 
Isaiah  II  is  the  consummate  beauty  and  power  of  his  mere 
language.  Words  with  him  seem  not  an  instrument  of  ex- 
pression, but  an  actual  organ  of  thought  and  still  more  of 
feeling.  They  are  not  so  much  voices  that  charm  or  thrill 
us  as  hands  that  hold  us,  caress  us,  and  move  us  as  they 
will.  What  Macaulay  said  of  Milton,  that  his  poetry  acts 
like  an  incantation,  is  much  more  true  of  our  author ;  for 
Milton  had  little  of  his  pathos,  his  feeling  of  the  lachrymoB 
rerum,  the  tearfulness  at  the  heart  of  things,  his  sense  of 
the  yearning  needs  of  all  sentient  beings,1  such  as  brings 
together  the  divine  Shepherd  and  his  tired  lambs  (xl.  11), 

1  Very  marked  in  Isaiah  II  is  the  absence  of  harshness  and  rancour.  He 
does  not  abuse  the  idol-worshippers  (xliv.  9-20  :  xlv.  20  ;  xlvi.  6  f.).  One 
feel*  that  he  is  sorry  for  their  stupidity.  He  is  contemptuous  of  the 
insensate  idols  ;  but  he  does  not  describe  them  as  thrown  down  (1  Sam. 
v.  :;  f.)  or  hurled  from  their  seats.  They  "stoop"  and  "bow  down,*'  and 
one  can  even  trace  the  pity  of  the  prophet  as  he  depicts  the  vain  efforts 
of  the  <;ods  once  carried  in  festal  procession  (§  1392)  to  save  themselves 
from  deportation  (xlvi.  If.).  On  the  other  hand,  bow  he  enters  into  the  lot 
of  the  really  suffering  :  the  captive,  the  prisoner,  and  the  oppressed  (xlii. 
7  ;  li.  13  f.),  the  faint  and  weary  (xl.  29  f.),  the  poor  and  needy  (xli.  17  ff.)! 


Ch.  VI,  §  1407  PARALLEL  WITH   VERGIL  421 

and  even  makes  the  Creator  call  his  heavenly  host  by  name, 
that  they  may  not  straggle  from  their  ranks  (xl.  26). * 
The  peer  of  Isaiah  II  is  not  Milton  but  Vergil ;  and  these 
two  are  alone  in  their  combination  of  subtle,  all-perva- 
sive tenderness  and  sympathy,  sustained  and  not  over- 
strained fervour,  splendour  and  simplicity  of  diction,  the 
enchantment  of  perfect  speech  set  to  the  music  of  the 
universal  human  heart.  They  stand,  therefore,  together 
among  the  chief  of  poets,  though  neither  was  a  great 
creative  genius,  nor  the  first  in  power  of  thought  in  the 
literature  of  his  own  nation.  Nor  does  the  parallel  end 
here ;  for  Vergil,  too,  was  a  prophet  of  the  fulness  of  the 
times.  As  Isaiah  II  gathered  in  himself  the  best  hopes  and 
promises  of  the  earlier  prophets,  so  Vergil  was  swayed  by 
the  purest  moral  ideas  and  aspirations  of  Greek  thinkers 
and  sages.  Lastly  and  most  remarkably,  each  of  them  stood 
at  the  close  of  a  long  period  of  international  strife  and 
bitterness,  and  expected  the  speedy  coming  of  an  age  of 
peace  and  blessedness.  How  different  the  two  conceptions 
were!  And  yet  the  coincidence  is  more  significant  than 
the  difference.  Of  each  of  them  it  may  be  said,  as  Victor 
Hugo  wrote  of  Vergil:2  — 

"  II  est  un  des  coeurs  que  deja,  sous  les  cieux, 
Dorait  le  jour  naissaut  du  Christ  niysterieux." 

§  1-107.  Such  writing  as  that  of  Isa.  xl.-lxvi.  is  not  spon- 
taneous. The  eloquence  that  moves  one's  contemporaries 
may  be  improvised,  but  that  which  sways  the  world  forever 
is  the  long  travail  of  mind  and  soul.  These  gems  of 
thought  and  feeling  with  their  incessant  pla}r  of  many- 
coloured  lights  were  polished  to  perfection.  Moreover,  if 
we  confine  our  attention  to  those  chapters  which  primarily 
belong  to  the  end  of  the  Exile,  we  must  see  that  their  per- 
manent form  was  not  given  at  once,  so  that,  as  was  said 

1  Cf.  the  imitation  in  Ps.  cxlvii.  4,  and  note  the  parallelism  with  vs. 
■i  and  ::. 

2  Lea  voix  interieurea,  XVIII  (1807). 


422  THE   PROBLEM   FOR   THE    PROPHET  Book  XI 

already  (§  1363),  their  literary  history  extends  beyond  the 
period  under  present  review.1  But  the  most  important  fact 
is  that,  as  we  have  them  now,  they  are  not  wholly  the 
production  of  the  individual  prophet  whose  genius  moulded 
and  elaborated  them.  The  thoughts,  so  comprehensive, 
far-reaching,  and  final,  are  the  ripe  conclusions  of  a  school 
led  by  the  unnamed  author.  In  the  finished  product  the 
earlier  writings  of  the  period  (§  1401  ff.)  found  their  cor- 
rection and  completion. 

§  1408.  Hence  the  great  political  catastrophe  was 
scarcely  a  problem  to  our  author.  Nor  was  it  now  hard 
to  convince  his  hearers  or  readers  that  the  day  of  Babylon 
was  near  to  come.  Cyrus  and  his  omnipotence  were  in  the 
mouths  of  all  men.  To  an  Israelite  the  overthrow  of  the 
oppressor  was  not  the  goal  of  desire ;  it  was  instrumental 
and  secondary.  The  more  difficult  question  was  whether 
such  an  event  would  help  or  save  the  Hebrew  exiles.  To 
give  the  answer  was  the  great  practical  achievement  of  the 
prophet.  He  had  two  classes  among  his  own  people  to 
deal  with.  Among  the  new  generation  now  grown  up 
there  were  many  who  had  lost  interest  in  the  hope  and 
destiny  of  Israel.  Those  he  sought  to  instruct  and  ener- 
gize. Then  among  even  the  faithful  leaders  were  many, 
perhaps  the  majority,  who  reasoned  that  the  approaching 
change  of  dynasty,  national  and  even  racial  as  it  was,  meant 
only  a  change  of  masters.  To  show  that  it  meant  deliver- 
ance was  now  his  great  prophetic  task.  The  personality  of 
Cyrus  was  necessarily  the  main  human  factor.  He  studied 
Cyrus,  followed  his  career  of  conquest,  and  especially 
his  policy  of  conciliation.  The  truth  was  flashed  on  his 
mind    that    Cyrus    was    Jehovah's    vicegerent  or  Messiah 

1  We  have  to  conceive  of  several  stages  :  the  converse  of  the  disciples 
and  the  master  over  the  critical  times  ;  the  communication  to  the  little 
circle  of  the  mind  of  Jehovah  in  broad  suggestions  as  to  the  duty  and  the 
hope  of  Israel ;  the  preparation  by  the  master  of  separate  discourses  free 
and  copious  for  wider  circles ;  the  condensing  and  coordinating  and 
arrangement  of  such  discourses  for  the  permanent  uses  of  the  com- 
munity. 


Ch.  VI,  §  1409       CERTAINTY   OF   REDEMPTION  423 

("anointed  one  ").  It  was  God's  work  that  he  had  been 
doing.  When  Babylon's  time  should  come  to  be  subjected 
to  him,  he  would  still  be  doing  God's  work.  And  how  so 
truly  and  well  as  in  freeing  God's  own  people,  who  were 
predestined  to  a  new  and  more  glorious  national  life  ? 
Hence  Cyrus  became  an  important  factor  in  his  theodicy, 
which  was,  of  course,  not  metaphysical  but  concrete,  and 
to  be  verified  by  the  accomplished  fact. 

§  1409.  Hence,  while  the  Restoration  was  the  end  in 
view,  it  was  not  the  mode  but  the  certainty  of  its  accom- 
plishment that  forms  the  prophet's  argument.  Character- 
istic of  him  is  his  serene  outlook  upon  the  action  of  the 
gigantic  forces  that  were  to  bring  about  the  result,  and  his 
estimate  of  their  relative  competency.  The  world  was  filled 
not  merely  with  the  fame  but  with  the  deeds  of  Cyrus. 
There  was  and  had  been  nothing  seen  or  temporal  to  match 
him.  As  far  as  tangible  power  was  concerned  the  prophet's 
own  client,  Israel,  was,  even  as  compared  with  moribund 
Babylonia,  a  mere  worm  of  the  dust  (xli.  14).  This  genu- 
inely prophetic  and  patriotic  sense  of  the  limitations  of  its 
own  national  power  —  something  so  hard  to  be  acquired  by 
any  people,  Hebrews  or  Romans,  Boers  or  Britons  —  had 
been  literally  pounded  into  Israel  through  its  centuries  of 
tribulation.  It  was  now  indeed  an  ever-present  thought  in 
the  mind  of  the  bewildered  exiles.  Israel,  therefore,  was 
not  a  factor  in  the  movement,  except  as  it  was  itself  to  be 
moved.  Cyrus  had  the  field  to  himself.  Even  to  the  com- 
mon man  in  Israel,  no  one  else  was  in  sight.  But  march- 
ing beside  him,  and  holding  his  right  hand,  though  he 
knew  it  not,  and  knew  Him  not  (xlv.  4),  was  One  who  was 
subduing  the  nations  before  him,  throwing  open  the  gates 
of  cities,  endowing  him  with  his  eagle-like  swiftness  and 
easy  success  (xli.  2  ff. ;  xlv.  1  f . ;  xlvi.  11).  And  all  this 
was  being  done  not  for  Cyrus  himself,  not  for  the  Persians 
or  the  Medes,  the  Lydians  or  the  Greeks,  but  for  the  puny 
remnant  of  Israel,  exiled  for  two  generations  from  their 
home  across  the  desert ! 


424  THE    GREAT  THEOPHANY  Book  XI 

§  1410.  How  the  career  of  Cyrus  was  to  affect  Israel 
was  nut  the  concern  of  the  prophet.  He  did  not,  strictly 
speaking,  foresee  events ;  he  saw  conditions.  Prediction 
is  essentially  a  view  of  details,  while  the  spiritual  element 
in  prophecy  has  primarily  not  to  do  with  results,  but  with 
factors  and  principles  and  their  divinely  constituted  inner 
relations.  Thus  while  the  dazed  secretaries  of  Nabonidus 
were  noting  the  crossing  of  the  Tigris,  and  the  surrender 
of  Sippar  and  of  Babylon  itself,  and  while  the  word  came 
swiftly  down  the  Shatt-en-Nil  and  along  the  Kebar  that 
Babylonia  had  become  Persian,  the  prophet  was  not  greatly 
surprised.  He  had  had  a  vision  already  which  had  seemed 
to  involve  these  or  some  such  incidental  affairs.  He  has 
given  us  his  theophany,  compared  with  which  the  finest 
lyric  representations  of  Jehovah's  interventions  (Ps.  xviii. ; 
Mic.  i.;  Hab.  iii.)are  as  the  Jordan  is  to  the  Euphrates,  or  as 
Sharon  is  to  Eden:  "  Hark!  there  is  a  voice  crying:  Clear 
away  in  the  wilderness  the  path  of  Jehovah ;  level  up  in 
the  desert  a  highway  for  our  God.  Every  valley  shall  be 
raised,  and  every  mountain  and  hillock  shall  be  lowered ; 
and  the  rugged  ground  shall  be  made  level  and  the  ridges 
a  plain ;  and  the  glory  of  Jehovah  shall  be  revealed ;  and 
all  flesh  shall  see  it  together,  for  the  mouth  of  Jehovah 
hath  spoken  it"  (xl.  3-5). 

§  1411.  Yet  our  prophet  did  also  make  great  account 
of  Cyrus  and  of  the  world  outside  of  Israel.  Herein  lies 
the  sanity  and  trueness  of  his  vision.  To  Cyrus,  a  non- 
Israelite,  even  a  non-Semite,  is  given  a  unique  distinction. 
He  is  called  the  anointed  and  the  friend *  of  Jehovah.  He 
is  the  one  whom  Jehovah  calls  in  righteousness.2   Jehovah 


1  Isa.  xliv.  28 ;  road  'jn  "  my  friend"  for  <jh  "my  shepherd  "  (as  also 
in  Zech.  xiii.  7).  Two  parallels  have  been  quoted  in  §  1393  :  "In  all  the 
nations  he  surveyed  his  friends,'1  and,  more  striking  still,  "going  by  his 
side  as  a  friend  and  companion." 

2  xlii.  6,  so  also  xli.  2,  cf.  xlv.  13.  See  again  §  1393 :  "  a  righteous 
prince  after  his  own  heart."  The  contention  of  G.  A.  Smith  {The  Book 
of  Isaiah  II,   1G5)  that  the  expressions  about  "righteousness"  on  the 


Ch.  VI,  §  1411  THE   CALL   OF   CYRUS  425 

calls  him  by  name,  and  surnames  him  as  well.1  What  makes 
the  tribute  more  impressive  is  that  the  language  is  imitated 
from  that  of  C}rrus  himself,  with  reference  to  the  patron 
god  of  Babylon.2  Our  prophet  gives  him  a  nobler  calling. 
Specifically  as  a  co-worker  with  Jehovah,  he  is  to  rebuild 
Jerusalem,  lay  the  foundations  of  the  Temple  (xliv.  28), 
and  (xlv.  13)  restore  the  exiles  to  their  homes.  His  larger 
commission  was,  to  be  the  instrument  of  letting  the  world 
know  that  Jehovah  was  God  alone  (xlv.  6).  How  is  all 
this  to  be  understood  and  justified?  As  already  said,  we 
are  not  in  this,  or  in  any  other  forecast  of  the  sort,  to 
look  for  a  fulfilment  in  detail.3  There  are  two  things  only 
which  touch  the  character  of  the  inspired  prophecy.  One 
is  the  character  of  Cyrus,  and  the  other  is  his  religion. 
Unless  these  were  approved  by  the  prophet  to  whom  both 

cylinder  and  in  Isaiah  II,  are  not  parallel  is  only  technically  correct. 
They  run  rather  on  converging  lines.  The  righteous  Cyrus  was  the 
agent  whom  Jehovah  sought  and  called  in  and  for  righteousness. 

1  xlv.  4.  The  exact  parallel  is  in  the  words  of  Cyrus  (§  1393)  :  "  'Cyrus, 
king  of  Anshan,'  he  called  his  name."  To  "name"  is  here  to  choose 
beforehand,  to  predestinate.  The  phrase  is  used  very  frequently  in  the 
inscriptions  of  the  choice  of  a  king  (sometimes  ages  beforehand)  by  his 
patron  god  to  rule  as  his  vicegerent.  To  bear  a  name  means  also  in  Baby- 
lonian (and  Hebrew)  to  have  an  existence  ;  in  connection  with  the  divine 
election  the  underlying  notion  is  therefore  that  of  calling  into  being. 
The  "surname"  (i::)  is  an  honorific  title,  like  the  cognate  Arabic 
kunya  and  the  Latin  cognomen.  Comparing  with  xliv.  5  we  learn  that 
"Cyrus,  king  of  Anshan,"  is  analogous  to  "Jacob  Israel." 

2  Our  prophet  was  doubtless  familiar  with  the  language  of  Babylonian 
royal  annals  and  proclamations,  and  a  general  reference  to  the  phraseol- 
ogy would  not  he  surprising.  But  such  close  analogies  wiiii  several  expres- 
sions occurring  in  one  brief  section  of  an  inscription  of  Cyrus  himself  can 
scarcely  be  accidental.  Is  it  not  probable  that  in  the  literary  working  up 
of  the  discourses  after  the  fall  of  Babylon  the  author  adapted  the  phrases 
in  question  from  the  cylinder  of  Cyrus  then  just  published  ?  I  have  not 
by  any  means  exhausted  the  parallels.  In  the  quotation  §  1393  every 
expression  of  the  passage  beginning,  "  In  all  the  lands,"  seems  to  be  imi- 
tated and  specially  applied  by  the  prophet. 

3  Yet,  after  all,  the  only  fulfilment  required  by  the  terms  of  the  pre- 
diction is  that  which  has  been  already  noted  in  §  1399. 


426  CHARACTER    OF   CYRUS  Book  XI 

were  fully  known,  lie  could  not  have  either  honestly  or 
intelligently  written  of  him  as  he  did.1 

§  1412.  The  material  for  a  judgment  of  the  character 
of  Cyrus  is  scanty ;  but  it  is  in  a  general  way  conclusive. 
The  first  thing  to  be  noted  is  the  largeness  of  his  fame. 
In  his  own  land  his  name  is  still  a  household  word,  sur- 
viving all  political  and  social  revolutions.  No  man  out- 
side the  Greek  and  Roman  world  has  been  so  much  the 
theme  of  the  classical  writers,  historians,  poets,  and  philos- 
ophers. No  one  outside  of  Israel  has  such  a  place  in  the 
Hebrew  literature.  This  singular  preeminence  of  sacred 
and  secular  renown  can  have  but  one  explanation.  We 
may  take  for  granted  what  may  be  called  his  Napoleonic 
qualities,  force  of  will,  energy,  enterprise,  versatility.  But 
these  are  not  the  substance  of  his  traditional  reputation, 
which  was  that  of  a  good  rather  than  of  a  great  man.2 

§  1413.  His  military  genius  may  be  taken  for  granted. 
But  we  have  already  had  reason  to  note  the  absence  of  a 
merely  aggressive  spirit  in  his  wars  (§  1390).    Of  his  states- 

1  That  is  to  say,  Cyrus  appears  here  as  the  agent,  not  as  the  mere 
instrument  of  Jehovah.  If  he  were  only  the  latter,  his  character  might 
be,  at  least  according  to  the  ruling  doctrine,  a  matter  of  indifference,  as 
is  that,  for  example,  of  Cecil  Rhodes  to  those  present  day  prophets  who  see 
the  cause  of  righteousness  prevailing  in  South  Africa. 

2  As  far  as  they  go,  his  own  records  already  cited  confirm  the  impres- 
sion produced  by  Isaiah  II.  The  popular  estimate  of  him  is  still  based 
upon  the  accounts  of  the  Greek  writers,  above  all  Herodotus  and  Xenophon. 
The  former  mentions  his  repeated  acts  of  generosity  to  his  rivals  and 
otherwise  gives  a  favourable  picture.  His  story  of  the  death  of  Cyrus 
at  the  hands  of  the  queen  of  the  Massagette  is  told  to  illustrate  an 
underlying  assumption  of  his  history  that  acts  of  violence  and  presump- 
tion are  followed  by  divine  punishment  (cf .  Duncker,  History  of  A  ntiq  » it>/, 
Eng.  tr.,  VI,  121).  The  Cyropwdia  of  Xenophon  was  written  to  show 
to  the  individualizing  Greeks  that  several  distinct  peoples  could  form  a 
single  nation  and  be  governed  successfully  by  one  man.  Hence  the 
idealizing  of  the  life  and  work  of  Cyrus  (cf.  Duncker,  ib.  V,  358).  But 
Xenophon  had  good  opportunities  of  learning  from  the  Persians  the  essen- 
tial traits  in  the  character  of  their  hero.  The  men  of  the  fifth  century 
B.C.,  moreover,  were  able  to  trace  the  enduring  results  of  the  career  of 
Cyrus  :  they  could  measure  the  shadow  which  was  still  cast  by  his  person- 
ality upon  the  face  of  western  Asia  and  eastern  Europe. 


Cii.  VI,  §  1415  STATESMAN   AND   RULER  427 

manship  and  his  habit  of  command  we  can  speak  more 
positively.  He  swayed  men  and  nations  with  equal 
facility  and  b}r  the  same  sort  of  faculty,  winning  their  alle- 
giance by  winning  their  hearts.  He  was  magnanimous, 
considerate,  tolerant,  as  well  as  wise  and  daring.  His 
spirit  was  cosmopolitan,  and  his  happy  genius  fitted  him 
to  deal  with  all  the  races  of  the  world.  It  was  a  new 
thing  in  history  to  find  conquered  peoples  quietly  acqui- 
escing in  a  dominion  wielded  from  a  centre  a  thousand 
miles  away.  The  marvel  increases  when  we  think  how 
diverse  his  subjects  were,  of  whom  the  most  prominent 
only  were  Persians,  Medes,  Armenians,  Scythians,  Lyd- 
ians,  Greeks,  Babylonians,  Aramaeans,  Palestinians,  not  to 
mention  the  subdivisions  of  each,  or  the  unclassified  east- 
ern communities.  And  this  array  of  peoples,  never  before 
united  under  one  or  two  or  three  sovereignties,  were  for  a 
time  fused  into  one  by  the  magic  of  his  genius.  His  faculty 
of  organization  alone,  supreme  as  it  was,  could  not  have 
sustained  his  power  during  a  month  of  his  lifetime. 

§  1414.  We  see  a  moral  trait  also  in  his  new  art  of  gov- 
erning, which  gave  freedom  of  action  to  each  section  of 
his  empire,  and  thereby  attached  all  to  the  central  power. 
It  had  not  occurred  to  his  Semitic  predecessors  that  any 
subject  could  serve  the  state  voluntarily.  Tiglathpile- 
ser  III,  Nebuchadrezzar,  and  Cyrus  stand  for  three  Ori- 
ental types  of  government.  The  first  aimed  to  rule  by 
denationalizing  and  disintegrating,  the  second  by  denation- 
alizing and  conserving,  the  third  by  local  protection  and 
personal  oversight.  This  was  as  far  as  it  was  possible  to 
go  in  the  direction  of  local  self-government  without  repre- 
sentation of  the  provinces  in  the  councils  of  the  empire. 
And  it  was  an  unspeakable  blessing  to  the  people  of 
western  Asia,  harassed  as  they  had  been  for  ages  by 
tax-gatherers  and  slave-drivers. 

§  1415.  As  far  as  the  Semitic  realm  was  concerned  the 
most  signal  boon  of  the  new  system  was  that  outgrowth  of 
the  sympathetic  spirit  of  Cyrus,  the  revocation  of  the  old 


428  LIBERATOR  AND   PROTECTOR  Book  XI 

Assyrian  system  of  the  deportation  and  exile  of  offending 
subjects.  To  have  put  an  end  to  this  custom  was  of  itself 
a  unique  distinction.  But  it  was  the  rarest  kingly  sym- 
pathy which  led  him  to  decree  that  those  already  cap- 
tive should  be  restored  to  home  and  country.  One  can  feel 
that  this  is  the  mainspring  of  the  personal  gratitude  and 
admiration  felt  for  Cyrus  by  our  prophet,  as  he  sets  before 
us  in  rapid  strokes  the  pathetic  picture  of  an  Oriental 
prison  and  the  joy  of  deliverance  :  "  The  cramped-up  cap- 
tive hastens  to  be  freed,  and  he  shall  not  die  and  descend 
to  the  pit,  nor  shall  his  bread  run  short"  (li.  14 j.1 

§  1416.  The  question  of  the  religion  of  Cyrus  is  one  of 
historical  interest  as  well  as  of  Biblical  importance.  The 
first  thinsr  that  strikes  us  is  his  tolerance.  Under  him  and 
his  successors  religious  wars  of  the  Assyrian  or  Semitic 
type  (§  169)  were  impossible  and  unknown  (cf.  §  1377). 
But  here  again  he  was  not  content  with  relieving  his 
world  of  an  unspeakable  curse.  He  became  an  actual 
patron  of  the  local  religions  — endeavoured,  in  fact,  to  have 
as  many  established  churches  as  there  were  separate  peo- 
ples under  his  dominion.  His  proclamation  regarding 
the  returning  Hebrews  and  their  worship  in  Jerusalem  is 
matched  by  his  own  report  of  what  he  did  for  the  gods  of 
Babylonia  (§  1398).  It  is  thought  by  some  that  being 
a  Zoroastrian  (§  1376),  he  had  some  sympathy  with  the 
spiritual  religion  of  the  Hebrews.  This  is  not  altogether 
impossible  ;  but  it  does  not  explain  his  patronage  of  other 
forms  of  worship.  Another  opinion  is  that  his  whole  pro- 
cedure was  a  piece  of  good  politics,  and  that  he  showed 
himself  a  religious  indifferentist.  There  is  no  doubt  about 
the  excellence  of  the  politics,  but  indifferentism  is  not  to 
be  inferred  from  his  policy.     This  notion  that  Cyrus  was 

1  We  should  not  forget  that  this  is  Hebrew  prophetic  poetry.  Our 
author  does  not  mean  to  describe  here  the  lot  of  the  average  exile.  But 
his  artistic  sense  is  justified.  It  is  the  extreme  instance  which  shows  the 
effect  of  the  system  or  the  principle.  In  Oriental  dungeons  men  starve  to 
death,  unless  ministered  to  (Matt.  xxv.  44)  by  friends  ;  cf.  §  1227. 


Ch.  VI,  §  1417  THE   CYRUS   OF   HISTORY  429 

a  man  of  no  religion  is  only  less  ill-considered  than  the 
view  formerly  held 1  that  he  learned  the  superiority  of 
Jehovah  from  these  very  prophecies.  What,  however,  is 
reasonably  certain  is  that  he  was  neither  an  agnostic  nor  a 
bigot,  but  a  serious  Zoroastrian ;  that,  as  a  follower  of 
Ahuramazda,  he  believed  in  the  principles  and  practice  of 
righteousness  and  in  the  possibility  of  its  advancement ; 
that  as  a  good  man  he  abhorred  the  idea  of  using  force  to 
spread  his  religious  views,  and  as  a  sagacious  ruler  he  was 
aware  of  the  futility  of  that  time-honoured  practice ;  that 
while  the  religious  motive  actuated  his  career,  it  acted 
within  as  an  impelling  and  directing  force,  and  not  without 
as  an  occasion  of  wrong  and  misery  ;  that  he  saw  sufficient 
good  in  all  the  greater  religions  to  justify  him  in  both 
tolerating  and  encouraging  them ;  and  that  he  promoted 
the  happiness  and  welfare  of  his  subjects  by  giving  them 
the  opportunity  of  serving  God  according  to  the  dictates 
of  conscience. 

§  1417.  Cyrus,  Alexander,  Caesar,  these  three  changed 
the  face  of  the  ancient  world.  Men  of  the  after  time, 
even  more  than  men  of  their  own  day,  have  been  awe- 
struck by  the  almost  superhuman  genius  and  force  of  these 
rulers  of  the  race.  The  historian,  as  he  looks  before  and 
after,  is  moved  more  to  thought  and  wonder  by  the  effects 
of  their  deeds  than  by  their  deeds  themselves,  by  what 
they  left  for  others  to  do  rather  than  by  their  own  achieve- 
ments. Such  men  can  have  no  successors;  and  when  they 
pass  away,  the  world  after  them  has  to  be  made  over  again. 
After  Cyrus  came  Cambyses,  and  then  the  collapse,  inevit- 
able when  the  force  of  the  one  strong  hand  had  been  fully 
spent.  Under  the  great  Darius  the  structure  was  recom- 
posed,  in  part  at  least,  after  the  mind  of  the  founder;  and 
the  Persian  dominion  was  better  for  the  harassed  races  of 

1  Based  in  part  on  Ezra  i.  2  ff.  and  in  part  Oil  the  statement  of  Jose- 
phus  (Ant.  xi,  2)  that,  the  predictions  of  "Isaiah"  relating  to  him  were 
shown  to  him  after  the  capture  of  Bahylon,  and  that  he  was  sei/.ed  with 
a  desire  to  fulfil  them  by  restoring  the  Hebrew  exiles. 


430  PROPHECY   AND   ITS   IDEAL  Book  XI 

Asia  than  the  outworn  yoke  of  Semitism.  Yet  the  genial- 
ity, the  tact,  and  the  humanity  of  Cyrus  were  wanting. 
These,  however,  were  rather  the  attributes  of  an  ideal 
ruler,  such  as  the  world  has  seldom  seen,  but  such  as, 
through  and  since  Cyrus,  it  has  desired  and  expected. 
Hence  the  better  part  of  the  Cyrus  of  history  and  prophecy 
is  not  that  which  he  wrought  for  the  Hebrews  or  the 
Babylonians  or  the  Persians,  but  that  which  he  was  and 
is  for  humanity. 

§  1418.  As  with  this  hero  of  prophecy  so  was  it  with 
prophecy  itself.  The  beauty  and  glory  of  the  Second  Isaiah 
were  not  reflected  in  the  state  or  church  of  those  exiles 
that  returned  to  Palestine  by  the  leave  and  encourage- 
ment of  the  great  deliverer.  No  contrast  could  be  greater 
than  that  between  the  prophetic  picture  of  Israel's  restora- 
tion and  its  actual  process.  Instead  of  "  songs  and  ever- 
lasting joy  "  (Isa.  li.  3,  11)  there  was  continual  bitterness 
of  soul.  Instead  of  imperial  patronage  and  aid  (xlix.  23) 
there  was  mere  official  tolerance  or  neglect.  Instead  of  a 
host  of  eager  patriots  triumphantly  reclaiming  Jehovah's 
land  and  thronging  thither  from  the  ends  of  the  earth 
(Isa.  xlix.  19  ff.),  a  feeble  band  of  settlers  were  huddled 
between  the  mounds  of  Jerusalem,  which  long  remained 
without  the  bare  essentials  of  walls  and  temple.  Nor 
were  the  spiritual  visions  and  hopes  of  the  great  prophet 
of  the  Exile  more  fully  realized.  The  new  Jerusalem, 
which  was  to  be  a  light  to  the  Gentiles  (xlix.  6)  and  the 
hospitable  shrine  of  votaries  from  the  north  and  west,  and 
even  from  the  far  land  of  China  (xlix.  12),  became  the  seat 
of  a  formal  and  exclusive  worship,  with  a  minute  and  rigor- 
ous ritual  as  the  handbook  of  the  most  spiritual  of  religions. 

§  1419.  But  all  this  was  inevitable,  and  in  the  order  of 
providence  if  not  according  to  the  letter  of  prophecy.  Is 
there  a  contradiction  here  ?  No,  only  a  paradox.  If  the 
God  of  providence  is  also  the  God  of  prophecy,  the  paradox 
is  solved  as  soon  as  we  understand  history,  which  is  only 
the  human  side  of  providence.     History  is  the  fulfilment 


Ch.  VI,  §  1420     PROPHECY,  PROVIDENCE.   HISTORY  431 

of  prophecy  as  the  finished  statue  or  painting  is  the  fulfil- 
ment of  the  artist's  dream,  with  the  superadded  details  of 
toil  and  circumstance.  If  God  rules  the  world,  then  the 
actual  must  be  the  slow  but  sure  fulfilment  of  his  ideal. 
And  his  ideal,  if  any  of  his  votaries  have  caught  it  at  all, 
has  been  caught  by  the  Hebrew  prophets.  It  is  their 
visions  and  none  other  that  are  being  fulfilled  in  the  moral 
progress  of  our  race.  The  visions  of  the  prophets  are 
truer  for  us  than  the  half-learned  incidents  of  history, 
because  they  herald  the  fixed  and  necessary  issues  to 
which  human  events  and  actions  tend  in  their  zigzag1  and 
uncertain  course.  Moreover,  the  prophetic  ideal  is  a 
living  force  which  assures  its  own  fulfilment  (§  13). 
Prophecy  is  thus  not  merely  the  interpreter  and  the  fore- 
runner of  history,  but  also  its  guide  and  its  goal.  If  there 
is  anything  fortuitous,  it  is  the  fate  of  men  and  nations. 
If  there  is  anything  certain,  it  is  the  progress  of  the  pro- 
phetic ideal:  justice,  kindness,  humility  (Mic.  vi.  8). 

§  1420.  As  we  close  our  present  survey,  two  ideas  of  in- 
finite regenerative  potency  appear  on  the  spiritual  horizon, 
projected  by  our  last  great  prophet  —  a  universal  brother- 
hood of  men  redeemed  by  Jehovah's  grace,  and  the  re- 
demptive ministry  of  Jehovah's  suffering  Servant.  These 
ideas  are  the  forces  that  heal  and  uplift  our  hurt  and 
stricken  humanity.  The  last  enemies  to  be  destroyed  in 
human  society  are  tribalism  surviving  in  militarism,  and 
injustice  materialized  in  cruel  greed.  They  involve  or 
induce  all  forms  of  impiety,  crime,  and  misery  ;  and  in 
some  of  the  most  illusive  and  noxious  of  their  disguises 
they  deceive  the  very  elect.  Against  them  the  Hebrew 
prophets,  with  their  Goel  the  Christ  and  their  true  succes- 
sors, have  declared  and  waged  eternal  war.  With  weapons 
that  are  not  carnal,  but  yet  are  mighty  before  God  to  the 
casting  down  of  strongholds,  they  shall  win  the  day.  Men 
shall  study  war  no  more  ;  the  meek  shall  inherit  the  earth. 


CHRONOLOGICAL    OUTLINES 


B.C. 

Before  7000. 


Before  6000. 


Before  5000. 


5000-4000. 


c.  4000. 
c.  3800. 

c.  3700. 
c.  3600. 
c.  3000. 
c.  2280. 
c.  2240. 


c.  2000. 
c.  L900. 

c.  1600. 
c.  1580. 

c.  1500. 
2f 


First  agricultural  settlements  in  the  Delta  of  the  Euphrates 
in  north  Babylonia,  the  sites  of  the  later  south  Baby- 
lonian settlements  being  still  under  the  slowly  receding 
waters  of  the  Persian  Gulf. 

Semitic  emigration  to  Egypt,  probably  by  way  of  South 
Arabia ;  agricultural  settlements  in  Middle  Egypt. 
Founding  of  cities,  as  Nippur  and  Kish,  in  central  and 
northern  Babylonia.  Nippur,  a  central  Semitic  sanctu- 
ary sacred  to  Bel. 

Rise  of  south  Babylonian  cities,  as  Erech  and  Ur.  Kingdom 
of  Simmer  (Shinar)  in  central  Babylonia.  Development 
of  petty  kingdoms  in  the  lower  Nile  valley. 

Successive  rise  of  kingdoms  throughout  Babylonia.  Akkad 
in  north  Babylonia  takes  the  place  of  Simmer.  Lagash 
(Shirpurla),  then  close  to  the  Persian  Gulf,  rises  to  prom- 
inence in  south  Babylonia.  Upper  and  Lower  Egypt 
develop  rival  kingdoms. 

Union  of  Upper  and  Lower  Egypt  —  First  dynasty. 

Empire  of  Akkad  extends  to  the  Mediterranean  under  Sar- 
gon  I,  and  Naram-Sin. 

Age  of  the  great  pyramids  in  Egypt. 

South  Babylonia  dominant  in  west  Asia. 

City  of  Ur  dominant  in  Babylonia. 

Babylonia  subdued  by  the  Elamites. 

Rise  of  city  of  Babylon.  Chammurabi  (Amraphel  of  Gen. 
xiv.)  its  king  expels  the  Elamites  and  unites  all  Baby- 
lonia. 

Shepherd  chiefs  (Ilyksos)  found  Asiatic  dynasty  in  Egypt. 

Babylonians  completely  occupy  and  civilize  Syria  ami 
Palestine.     A  large  part  of  Israel  goes  down  to  Egypt. 

Babylonians  retire  from  Syria  and  Palestine. 

Ilyksos  expelled  from  Egypt.  Asiatics  oppressed.  Hard- 
ships of  Israel  in  Egypt  begin. 

Egyptian  empire  founded  in  Syria  and  Palestine. 
133 


434  CHRONOLOGICAL   OUTLINES 

B.C. 

c.  1400.     Rise  of  the  Hettite  league  in  Syria.     Egyptians  give  way  to  them 

in  Syria, 
c.  1326.     Treaty  between  Rameses  II  of  Egypt  and  the  Hettite  king ; 

Egyptians  retain  Palestine,  and  Hettites  Syria. 
c.  1260.     Merneptah  of  Egypt  subdues  Palestinian  Israelites, 
c.  1200.     Exodus  of  Hebrews  from  Egypt. 
c.  1190.     Egyptians  retire  wholly  from  Palestine. 
c.  1170.     Entrance  of  Egyptian  Israelites  into  Canaan. 
c.  1130.     Deborah  and  Barak  judge. 
c.  1100.     Assyria  becomes  more  powerful  than  Babylonia,  but  does  not 

occupy  the  lat+er  country.     Gideon  judges. 
c.  1080.     Decline  of  Egypt,  Assyria,  and  Babylonia  gives  opportunity  for 
development  to  Aramaeans  in  Syria  (Damascus,  Zobah,  etc.) 
and  to  Israel,    with   other   peoples,    iu  Palestine.     Jepthah 
judges. 
c.  1050.     Samuel  judges, 
c.  1030.     Saul  is  made  king. 
c.  1000.     David  begins  to  reign. 
c.    965.     Solomon  begins  to  reign. 
c.    950.     Temple  in  Jerusalem  completed. 

945.     Libyan  dynasty  begins  in  Egypt  under  Shishak.     Rise  of  Da- 
mascus. 
934.     Division  of  the  kingdom.     Jeroboam  I  in  northern  Israel,  Reho- 

boam  in  Judah.     Wars  between  Israel  and  Judah. 
929.     Shishak  invades  Israel  and  Judah. 
918.     Abijah  king  of  Judah. 
915.     Asa  king  of  Judah. 
913.     Nadab  king  of  Israel. 
911.     Baasha  king  of  Israel. 
890.     Baasha  loses  territory  in  the  north  to  Ben-hadad  I  of  Damascus. 

Revival  of  Assyrian  power. 
888.     Elah  king  of  Israel. 
887.     Zimri  king  of  Israel. 
886.     Omri  king  of  Israel.     Founding  of  Samaria.     Long  peace  with 

Judah. 
875.     Assyrians  begin  systematic  conquest  in  Syria.     Ahab  king  of 

Israel. 
872.     Jehoshaphat    king    of   Judah.      Alliance   with    Judah   against 

Damascus. 
855.     Peace  with  Damascus  under  Benhadad  II. 

854.     Shalmaneser  II  wages  battle  at  Karkar  with  a  western  confeder- 
acy, including  Israel  and  Damascus. 
853.     Truce  broken  ;  Ahab  killed  at  Ramoth-Gilead.      Ahaziah  and 

Joram  kings  of  Israel. 
850.     Jehoram  king  of  Judah. 


CHRONOLOGICAL   OUTLINES  435 

B.C. 

843.     Ahaziah  king  of  Judah. 

842.  Jehu  king  of  Israel ;  Athaliah  queen  of  Judah.  Shalmaneser 
receives  tribute  from  Jehu. 

836.  Israel  saved  from  destruction  through  the  attacks  of  Hazael  of  Da- 
mascus by  the  Assyrian  assaults  upon  the  latter.  Jehoash  king 
of  Judah. 

815.     Jehoahaz  king  of  Israel. 

799.     Ethiopian  inroad  on  Upper  Egypt.     Joash  king  of  Israel. 

797.  Damascus  taken  by  Ramman-nirari  III  of  Assyria.  Amaziah  king 
of  Israel. 

783.  Revival  of  north  Israel.  Assyrians  retire.  Jeroboam  II  king  of 
Israel.     Azariah  (Uzziah)  king  of  Judah. 

769.     Expansion  of  Judah.     Azariah  (sole  reign). 

763.     Prophet  Amos. 

761.     Jotham  king  of  Judah. 

743.     Prophet  Hosea. 

742.     Zachariah  and  Shallum  kings  of  Israel. 

741.     Menahem  king  of  Israel. 

738.  Israel  terrorized  and  made  tributary  by  Tiglathpileser  III  (Pul)  of 
Assyria  (745-727).     Jotham  (sole  reign).     Prophet  Isaiah. 

736.     Pekahiah  king  of  Israel. 

735.  League  of  Damascus  and  north  Israel  against  Judah.  Pekah  king 
of  Israel.     Ahaz  king  of  Judah. 

734.     Tiglathpileser  III  invades  Palestine.     Judah  tributary  to  Assyria. 

733.  Damascus  and  Samaria  taken  by  Assyrians  ;  part  of  Israel  deported  ; 
Hoshea  Assyrian  vassal  in  Samaria. 

728.     Ethiopian  dynasty  in  Egypt  (728-645). 

724.     Revolt  of  Hoshea.     Prophet  Micah. 

722.  Sargon  II,  king  of  Assyria  (722-705),  deports  27,290  people  of  Sa- 
maria.    Annexation  to  Assyria. 

719.     Hezekiah  king  of  Judah. 

704.     He  joins  in  revolt  against  Assyria. 

701.  Sinacherib  (705-681)  invades  Palestine;  deports  many  people  of 
Judah  ;  retires  from  Jerusalem  because  of  plague  in  his  army. 

090.     Manasseh  king. 

689.     Sinacherib  destroys  Babylon. 

681.     Esar-haddon  (681-668)  restores  Babylon. 

672.     Esar-haddon  conquers  Egypt. 

667.     Asshurbanipal  (668-4526)  reconquers  Egypt. 

648.     Asshurbanipal  ends  great  revolt  by  capture  of   Babylon. 

645.     Assyrians  withdraw  from  Egypt. 

641.     Anion  king. 

639.     Josiah  king. 

626.     Swift  decline  of  Assyria.     Prophet  Jeremiah. 

621.     Finding  of  the  Book  of  Direction  ;  reform  in  religion  and  worship. 


436  CHRONOLOGICAL   OUTLINES 

B.C. 

620.     Prophet  Zephaniah. 

608.     Pharaoh-necho  invades  Palestine  and  Syria.     Josiah  killed  in  battle 

with  Necho.     Jehoahaz  and  Jehoiakim  kings.     Judah  a  vassal 

of  Egypt. 
607.     Nineveh  destroyed  by  Medes.     Prophet  Nahuin. 
604.     Necho    defeated    at    Carchemish   by    Nebuchadnezzar    (604-562). 

Judah  submits  to  Nebuchadnezzar. 
GOO.     Prophet  Habakkuk. 

598.     Jehoiakim  revolts.     Chaldseans  invade  Judah. 
597.     Jehoiachin  king.     First  captivity. 
597.     Zedekiah  king. 
592.     Prophet  Ezekiel. 

588.     Zedekiah  rebels.     Jerusalem  invested. 
586.     Jerusalem  taken.     Second  captivity. 
581.     Murder  of  the  governor  Gedaliah.       Many  remaining   Hebrews 

migrate  to  Egypt.       Others  deported  —  a  third  captivity. 
567.     Nebuchadnezzar  conquers  Egypt,  but  does  not  retain  it. 
562.     Evil-Merodach,  king  of  Babylon. 
556.     Nabonidus,  last  king  of  Babylon. 

550.     Cyrus,  prince  of  Persia  and  Elam,  becomes  king  of  the  Medes. 
547.     Cyrus  conquers  Lydia. 

539.     Cyrus  conquers  Babylon  and  becomes  its  king. 
538.     Proclamation  of  Cyrus  freeing  the  exiles  of  Judah. 


INDEX   I 


SUBJECTS 

The  numbers  refer  to  the  paragraphs  of  the  work. 
The  tables  of  Contents  should  be  used  in  connection  with  this  Index 
when  several  references  are  set  down  for  the  same  topic. 


app.  =  appendix 

L  =  land,  region,  or  district 

b.  =  son  of  (ben) 

M  =  mountain  or  mountain 

bat  =  daughter  of 

range 

C  =  city  or  city  state 

n.  =  note 

Ch  =  chief 

0  =  officer  or  official 

Cr  =  commander 

P  =  people  or  race 

D  =  divinity  or  demon 

Q  =  queen 

G  =  governor  or  viceroy 

R  =  river 

I  =  island 

S  =  settlement  or  site 

J  =  judge 

T  =  tribe  or  clan 

K  =  king  or  kinglet 

"W  =  watercourse 

Aahmes  I  (K),  144,  346. 
Abdashirti  (Cr),  152. 
Abditaba  (G),  152. 
Abdiii'tu  (K),  675. 
Abel-beth-maacah  (C),  331,  I.  app. 

13. 
Abijah  (K),  210. 

Abimelech  (K),  49,  189;  (G),  152. 
Abiyate  (Ch),  788. 
Aimer  (Cr),  203. 
Abraham  i  Abram,   Ch),   Hi'.),   406, 

412.   115.  447  ».,  7:i2  ,,.,  955,  (CO. 
Absalom   b.   David,  205,  515,    526, 

971. 
Abu-Habba  (S),  87. 
Abu  Nejra  (S),  120:;. 
Al.u  Simbel  (C).  1207. 
Abyssinians    ("Ethiopians"),    18, 

Z<j. 


Accho   (Akko,    C),   152,   226,  675, 

789. 
Achsemenes  (Ch),  1378. 
Acharu  ("  West  "),  133  n. 
Achbor  (O),  850. 
Achimiti  (K),  632,  II.  app.  4. 
Achish  (K),  107. 
Achuni  (K),  227. 
Adar  (Nineb,  D),  57,  220,  818. 
Adarmalik  1>.  Sinacherib,  744. 
Adbeel  (I'),  334. 
Addan  (S),  1273. 
Addar  (C),  152. 
Adinnu  (C),  228. 
Adonijah  b.  David,  20.">. 
Adonis  (D,  of.  Tamrauz),  330,  1 184  n. 
Adoption,    family.    4H I  ;    tribal    ami 

national.  548  ff,  568  :  seeStrangers. 
Adoniba'al  (K),  228. 


437 


438 


INDEX   I 


Adrammelech,  see  Adarmalik. 
Agriculture,  Hebrew,  475,  484,  540, 

567  ;  Babylonian,  1270, 1283, 1317. 
Aguni-kak-rime  (K),  123. 
Ahab  (K),  213 ff.,  221,  228,  231  ff., 

239,    519,    981  f.,    1005;    (exile), 

1169.  -" 

Ahava  (C),  1273  n. 
Ahaz  (K),  270,  308,  317 ff.,  325 ff., 

336  ;  I.  app.  12. 
Ahaziah  (K),  of  Judah,  221,   236, 

254  ;  of  "  Israel,1  •  235,  635,  638  ff. 
Ahijah  (prophet),  979. 
Ahikani  b.  Shaphan,  843,  850,  1092. 
Ahriman  (D),  1376. 
Ahuramazda  (U).  1376,  1416. 
Ai  (C),  185. 
Akaba,  gulf  of,  755. 
Akaba  (C),  780. 
Akkad  (Agade,  C),  80,  87  ff.,  93  f. 

98  f.    102,    105,    752;    (L),    782, 

1392,  1395  f. 
Akkadian,  see  Sumerians. 
Akk!  (0),89. 
Akzibi  (Ekdippa,  C),  675. 
Aleppo     (Chalman,    C),    141,    202, 

226,  228.  241. 
Alexander  of  Macedon,  42,  737  «., 

1417. 
Allatu  (D),  1185. 
Alliances,  see  Federations. 
Altruism    in    the    Old    Testament, 

611  ff. ;  among  the  Hebrews,  9581, 

966,  972. 
Alusharshid  (K),  91  f. 
Alyattes  III  (K).  775. 
Amalekites,  183,  197,  204,  975. 
Amanus    (M),    96,    125,   201,    219, 

257,  307. 
Amarna  (Tell  el  Amarna,  S),  and  its 

inscriptions,    146  ff. 
Amasis  (K),  1365. 
Amaziah  (K),  254,  260 f. 
Amedi  (C,  Diarbekr),  247. 
Amen  (I)),  144  f.,  207,  346,  770  n. 
Amenophis   (K),  III,    145 ff.,   162; 

[V,  147  ff.,  162,  175. 
Ammonites,  26   (18),    48,    50,    183, 

190  f.,  196,  204,  209,  215,  228,  263, 

268  f.,  273,  302,  337,  550  n.,  675, 


677,    761,    787.    972,    1078,    1157, 

1213,  1240,  1243,  1251. 
Anion  (K),  806,  845. 
Amorites,  26,  41,  48.  117,  131,  132  f., 

160,  163,  183 ff.,  201,  I.  app.  3. 
Amos,  the  prophet,  24>v  2#i.  30>ffr, 
'    320,   pf,  I.  app.   4,   oyjr,  ^£4fr, 

Amraphel.  see  Chammurabi. 

Amu  (P),  132,  135. 

Anat  (D),  856  n. 

Anathoth  (C),  1101,  1221,  1225. 

Animal  worship,  1183. 

Anshan  (L),  98.  106,  1378,  1404. 

Anthropomorphisms,  927. 

Anti-Lebanon,  125. 

Anu  (D).  172.  856». 

Anunit  (D),  94. 

Aphek  (C),  194.  231,  234,  756. 

Arabah  (L),  262.  273. 

Arabia  and  Arabs  (collectively),  18, 
23,  471,  1251.  132,  1341,  141, 
228,  230,  675,  7051;  North  A., 
97,  132.  1341.  163,  228.  334.  630, 
7081,  741,  7541,  786 ff.,  802; 
South  A.,  145,  878  ;  Arabs  in 
Babylonia,  114,  117,  438  ;  in  Jeru- 
salem, 675. 

Aramaeans,  distribution,  25  (17), 
75  ;  I.  app.  5  ;  achievements.  64. 
202,  368  ;  political  conditions.  47, 
284,  286  ;  trade,  64, 141,  202,  212  ; 
language,  701  ;  settlements  and 
history,  1601,  179,188.2011.211, 
223,  228.  247,  293.  351.  438.  6601, 
672,  780,  1078 ;  see  especially 
Damascus  and  Mesopotamia. 

Arami  (K).  228. 

Aram-Naharaim  (L).  75,  132. 

Ararat  (L),  see  Armenia. 

Architecture.  341,  667,  737,  742, 
762,  830. 

Ardys  II  (K),  775. 

Argana  (C),  228. 

Argistis  (K),  256. 

Argo  (I),  346. 

Ariel  (Jerusalem).  772. 

Arioch  (K),  108 ff..  1131,  117. 

Ark  of  the  Covenant,  194,  919. 

Armageddon  (C),  145. 


INDEX   I 


439 


Armenia  (L),  154,  179,  222,  247, 
250,  258,  284,  294,  811,  020,  735, 
747,  1403. 

Army  (cf.  Warfare  and  Weapons)  : 
Hebrew,  199,  205,  210,  245,  204, 
266,  208 f.,  458,  512ft'.,  531,  700, 
879 ;  Egyptian,  144 ;  Assyrian, 
697  n.,  813  ;  Medo-Persian,  1396. 

Anion  (R),  183,  243. 

Arpad  (C),  141,  226,  294,  624. 

Arsu  (K),  166. 

Art  in  Israel,  269,  1178  m. 

Arvad  (C),  125,  145,  152,  180,  675. 

Aryans,  contrasted  with  Semites, 
51,  28  f.,  56;  in  Asiatic  history, 
823,  1373  ft.  ;  cf.  Kimmerians,  Scy- 
thians, Greeks,  Medes,  Persians. 

Asa  (K),  211,  215,  1247  ?«. 

Asdudimmu  (C),  632. 

Ashdod  (C),  192,  032,  034  (053  f., 
058 f.),  075,  084,  089,  II.  app.  4, 
1032. 

Asher  (T),  186,  272. 

Ashera  (D),  152 «.,  321,  330,  854. 

Asherites  (P),  530. 

Ashkenaz  (P),  1403. 

Ashtoreth  (Astarte,  cf.  Ishtar,  D), 
137,  200  n.,  213,  321,  855,  856  n., 
971,  1256. 

Asi  (Cyprus,  I),  133. 

Askalon  (C),  152,  192,  332,  675, 
689  ft. 

Asshur  (C),  74,  171  f.,  179  f.,  247, 
258  f.,  283;   (D),  57,  59  f. 

Asshnrbanipal  (Asshurbanapil,  K), 
90,  KI7,  703  ft.,  802,  810  ft.,  II. 
app.  17,  1286. 

Asshur-bel-nishesu  (K),  175. 

Asshur-dan  (K),  I,  178;  II,  216; 
III,  258. 

Asslmr-etil-ilani  (K),  820,  824. 

Asshur-nadin-shum  (K),  739. 

Asshur-nirari  (K),  258,  281. 

Asshurnasirpal  (Asshurnasrapil,  K), 
180,  210  ft.,  282. 

Asshur-ivsh-ishi  (K),  178. 

Asshur-ubaUit  (K),  175. 

Asslmr-zfikir-shnm  (K),  071. 

Assiah  (O),  850. 

Assouan  (Syene,  C),  346,  1365. 


Assyria  (L).  74. 

Assyrians  (P)  :  classification,  18; 
character,  108  f.,  208;  extension, 
39  f.,  808  f.  ;  culture,  816  if.  ;  colo- 
nies, 41, 175  ;  trade,  141 ;  political 
tendencies  and  government,  41, 
52,  108,  172,  217,  221  ft.,  282  11, 
301,  303,  382  ff.,  723,  743,  1050, 
1402  ;  religion  and  deities,  57,  59, 
108 f.,  172,  220,  228,  259,  040; 
achievements,  65,  365 f.,  368,  830  ; 
language,  80  ff.,  115,  153  f.  ;  monu- 
ments, 217,  220  n.,  221  n.,  237,  242, 
248,  208,  281  n.,  I.  app.  G,  15,  10, 
666 1.,  675,  690,  757,  817,  II.  app. 
9,  16,  17  ;  general  history,  76,  78, 
145,  150,  155,  170  ft.,  and  see  Con- 
tents ;  relations  with  Syria  and 
Palestine,  101,  174,  212,  250  ff., 
294,  305  ff.,  326,  331  ff.,  343  f.,  349 
ff.,  512,  550,  024  f.  ;  relations  with 
Egypt,  150,  332,  025,  030,  632, 
675,  678  f.,  705,  708  ff.,  756,  761, 
764 ff.,  II.  app.  14. 

Astarte,  see  Ashtoreth. 

Astrology  in  Israel,  850. 

Astyages  (K),  1380,  1382  ff. 

Ataroth  (C),  235. 

Aten  (D),  147. 

Athaliah  (Q),  235,  254,  320. 

Athbash  (cypher).  1403 n. 

Atlantic  navigated,  42,  00,  1031. 

Azariah,  see  Uzziah. 

Azekah  (C),  1213. 

Azupiranu  (C),  89. 

Azuri  (K),  032,  II.  app.  4. 

Azuru  (C),  075. 

Ba'al,  lord  and  husband,  418, 426  n.  ; 

(K),  757,  701 11. 
Baal   (ba'alim,   D),   worship,    59  f., 

137,213,  321,  855,  856  n. 
Baalis  (K),  1245. 
Baasha  (K),  of  Israel,  211,  1247  n. ; 

of  Amnion,  228. 
Bab-salimeti  (C),  780. 
Babylon  |  Babel,  C),  34,  39 f.,  Ill  f . , 

117,  180,  247,  623,  660  f.,  668,  073, 

740,  748  ff.,  783,  1050  ff.,  1273, 
«  1292  f.,  1371  f.,  1392  ff. 


440 


INDEX   I 


Babylonia :  extent,  73  ;  physical  as- 
pect, 1314. 

Babylonians  :  classification,  18  ;  age, 
70;  character,  122  ;  language,  see 
Assyrians  ;  civilization,  70  ff.  ; 
achievements,  65,  93,  116,  153 f., 
365 ff.,  836 f.  ;  religion  and  deities. 
57,  87,  941,  99 ff.,  1071,  112,  117. 
122,  700,  10531,  1060ff.,  1185, 
1332,  1340  ;  industry,  1004,  1270  f.; 
trade,  901,  961,  103,  1059;  gen- 
eral history,  80 ff..  140,  153,  174  ft'.. 
223  1.  247.  293,  3391,  670,  733 ff., 
748  ft'.,  778  ff.,  822,  10251, 1045 ff., 

1304  ff. ;  relations  with  Syria  and 
Palestine,  90 ff.,  96,  109,  116,  123, 
137,  141,  153  ff.,  174,  679,  10431, 
1171,  1210  ff.,  1241,  1250;  rela- 
tions with  Egypt,   96,   149,   1222, 

1305  f.  ;  relations  with  Medo-Per- 
sians,  1301  ff.  ;  monuments,  87  ff., 
95  ff..  117  h.,  140  ff.,  1051 ».,  1053 
n.,  1371  n.,  1382  «.,  1393m.  See 
also  Agriculture,  Business,  Water- 
courses. 

Baghdad  (C),  71. 

Baktria  (L),  1374,  1389. 

Balaam's  prophecies,  895. 

Balich  (R),  75,  218,  228,  343,  302. 

Ban.  the  sacred,  550. 

Banai-Barka  (C),  675,  695. 

Barak  (J),' 188,  479. 

Barkal  (M),  347. 

Baruch  b.  Neriah,   1082  «.,  1116  ff., 

1242.  1248,  1254.  1353. 
Bashan  (L),  186,  243,  272,  315. 
Bazu  (P),  755  n. 
Bedawin,  127. 
Beenah  marriage,  412  f. 
Bekenrenf  (Bocchoris,  K).  317. 
Bel  i  D),  57,  94,  112,  341,  12841 
Bel  (and  Nebo),  311,  663. 
Bel-epush  (K),  see  Bel-ibne. 
Bel-ibne  (K),  I,  172  ;  II.  073,  735. 
Bel-kapkapu  (K),  172. 
Bel-Merodach  (D),  1056,  1285. 
Bel-nirarl  (K).  175. 
Belshazzar     (Ch),     II.     app.     3; 

(prince ),  1371,  1392. 
Bel-shum-ishkun  (K),  1370  n. 


Bene-berak,  see  Banai-Barka. 
Benhadad  (K).  I,  211  ;  II.  221,  228 

("  Dadda-idri  "),    231  ff.,    236  1, 

241;    III,  245. 
Benjamin   (T),   188,  194,   196,  200, 

204,  208,  275. 
Bera  (K),  109. 
Bernard  of  Clugny,  an  illustration, 

1237». 
Beth- Amnion,  see  Ammonites. 
Beth-arbel  (C),  314. 
Beth-Dagon  (C),  075,  695. 
Beth-Eden  (L),  227. 
Bethel  (C),  185  f.,  477,  687,  840,  928. 
Bethlehem  (O),  107. 
Beth-shean  (C),  812  n. 
Bethshemesh  (C),  260;  (Heliopolis), 

1255  n. 
Beth-ziti  (C),  675. 
Beyrut  (C),  152. 
Bingani  (K),  92. 
BIt-Chumri    (X.    Israel),    133-212, 

243,  248.  331. 
Bit-Pakkuri  (C).  662. 
Bit-elu,  see  Esagila. 
BIt-kenu,  see  Ezida. 
Bit-Yakin  (L),  223,  340,  664,  666, 

7331,  751. 
Blood-revenge,  398, 465. 486, 950.  072. 
Boats  and  rafts,  1305  and  n. 
Boer  question,  illustrated,  955,  1223, 

1258  ff. 
Borsippa  (Barzip,  C),  112,  663,  783, 

1061  n.,  1063,  1392. 
Bribery,  see  Venality.  Gifts. 
Bronze,  I.  app.  3. 
Bubastis  (C),  345. 
Bunyan  as  a  seer,  1354. 
Burial  of  a  Hebrew  king,  1210  n. 
Burraburiash  (K).  140.  175. 
Business,  society,  and  morals,  990, 

1318  ff.' 
Business    documents,    422  n.,    899, 

1225.   1321  ff. 
Buz  (P  and  L),  755  n. 
Byblus  (Gebal,  Gubal,  C),  145,  152, 

675. 

Caesar,  Julius,  766  «..  1417. 
Cain  the  outlaw,  398  n. 


INDEX   I 


441 


Caleb  the  Kenizzite,  493,  550,  563. 

Calendar,  748  n.  (cf.  746  f.),  1344  n. 

Caliphate,  47. 

Cambysea  (K),  I,  1382;  II,  1397, 
1417. 

Camels,  475. 

Canaanites :  classification,  24  (18)  ; 
how  far  distant  from  Amorites, 
131, 1,  app.  3  ;  settlements,  126  ft'. ; 
political  tendencies,  37,  47,  491, 
52  ft.,  127,  144,  184;  culture,  141, 
164,  166,  184  ;  religion,  184,  495  ; 
relations  with  Israel,  185 ft'.,  200, 
369  f. ,  472  f. .  477  ft. ,  493  ft. ,  506  f . ; 
relations  with  Egypt,  135  ft.,  104. 

Canals,  see  Watercourses. 

Caphtor  (L),  192. 

Cappadocia  (L.  Kummuch,  etc.), 
154,  157,  179,  281,  294,  311. 

Captivity,  see  Deportation,  Exile. 

Caravan  traffic,  135,  202,  334. 

Carchemish  (C),  120,  141,  145,  162, 
179,  201  f.,  219,  227  f.,  237,  628, 
827,  1043,  1088  f.,  1115. 

Carians  (P),  768,  1389. 

Carthage  (C),  42.  43,  45,  683. 

Caspian  Sea,  247  f . 

Cattle  among  the  Hebrews,  475. 

Cavalry,  see  Army  and  Horses. 

Census  (cf.  Imposts).  523. 

Centralism,  Hebrew,  52 ;  Semitic, 
56  ;  Assyrian,  743. 

Centralization  of  worship  (cf.  Tem- 
ple). 992. 

Ceremonialism  in  Israel  (cf.  Ethics 
and  ritual),  1006  f.,  1011  f.,  1017, 
1021,  1023,  1020,  1068,  1094, 1114, 
1314. 

Chabet  (P),  1089  n. 

Chabire  (P),  152. 

Chabor  (Ilabor,  Chaboras,  R),  71. 
75,  218,  343,  302  f. 

"Chaldaeah  Genesis,"  886  n. 

Chaldaeans  (P),  18,  112,  223 f.,  237, 
2471,  293,3391,  438.  621ft..  660 
ff.,071  ft.,  733 ff., 751,  7801,7841, 
822,  1046  ff.,  1090  ft.,  1129  ft. 

Chalule  (C),  739. 

(  liainmurabi  (Amraphel,  K),  109, 
111,  1131,  117,  1056  n.,  1285. 


Chanirabbat  (L,  cf.  Chanu),  746  f. 
Charm  (L,  N.  Syria),  123,  161  n. 
Chanun  (K),  332,  625. 
Chariots  (cf.  Army),  144,  519  f. 
Charran  (Haran,  C),  26,  47,  75,  141, 

874,  1383  f. 
Charu  (S.  W.  Palestine),  132. 
Chastity  among  the  Hebrews,  616  f.  ; 

cf.  Sexual  Morality. 
Chattin  (L,  Patin  ?),  226 ft.,  I.  app.  9. 
Chayapa  (Ephah,  P),  030. 
Chedorlaomer  (K),  109,  114,  117. 
Chemosh  (D),  59,  235,  855. 
Chemosh-nadab  (K),  675. 
Cherub  (C),  1273. 
Cherubim,  1176  n. 
Chetta-sira  (K),  163. 
Chiefs,  36,  I.  app.  2,  396  n. ,  444  f . , 

452.  560. 
Chinnereth  (Lake),  211. 
Chittim  (C),  42,  I.  app.  3,  681. 
Choaspes,  see  Uknu. 
Choser  (R),  341,  827 n. 
Christian  Science  illustrated,  1199. 
"Christianity's  Millstone,"  615  n. 
Chronicles,  see  Kings. 
Chronology,    871,  107,   1181,   167, 

180,  199,  234,  I.  app.  6,  634  ft.,  II. 

app.  6. 
Chubushkia  (L),  759  n. 
Chu-en-Aten,  see  Amenophis  IV. 
Chumbaba  (K),  107. 
Chuinbanigash  (K),  623. 
Cilicia  (L),  132,  201,  206,  226,  243, 

294,  311,  735,  773,  1379. 
Circumcision,  as  an  adoptive  rite, 

540,  551. 
Cities  and  city  life,  Semitic,  31  ft., 

47  ;    Hebrew    (Canaanitic),    477, 

482   ff.,    493,    490,    498,    501    1, 

505. 
Clans,  390 ft.,  444 1,  448,  451.  500. 
Clientage  in  Israel,  548  ft'.,  567. 
Clothing,  of  the  poor,  584. 
Coele-Syria  (1),  125,  141. 
(olonies,    Semitic,    41ft.;    and   see 

Phoenicians,    Aramaeans,    Assyr- 
ians. 
Communism.  Hebrew,  50,  565. 
Confucianism,  431,  1828. 


442 


INDEX    I 


Conquered    enemies,    how    treated 

(cf.  Deportation,  Warfare),  1192, 

1232  ff.,  1270  f. 
Copper  in  commerce,  I.  app.  3;  cf. 

630. 
Corporate  (tribal,  national)  religion, 

1000,  102-2,  1021. 
Court  officials.  205,  521  f.,  590,  592, 

697,  1154. 
Covenant,    Book  of    the,  474,  487, 

502,  58(5,  847  f.,  891  f.,  1100. 
Creation  literature,  885  ff. 
Cretans  (P),  192,  520. 
Croesus  (K),  1380,  1387  f. 
Cuneiform,  see  Writing. 
Cush,  and  Cushites,  145,  346,  655, 

1207,  1228  n. 
Cushanrishathaim  (K),  188. 
Cutha  (Kutfi,  C),  94,  102,  783. 
Cyaxares  (K),  1379. 
Cyprus  (I),  90,  93 n.,  125,  133,  145, 

I.  app.  3,  666,  681  f.,738,  II.  app.  4. 
Cyrus  (K),  1. 1378  n.  ;  II,  359,  1378, 

1381  ff.,  1408  ff. 

D,  see  Deuteronomist. 

Daban  (W),  247. 

Daghara  (W),  1294. 

Damascus  (C  L),  34  and  n.,  40,  47, 
55,  126,  128, 141,  201  f.,  209,  211  f., 
215,  226,  228  ff.,  235  ff. ,  248,  250  ff ., 
257,  262  f.,  270,  273,  302,  310, 
315  f,.  333,  335  f.,  376,  380,  516, 
556,  624,  788,  II.  app.  7. 

Dan  (Laish,  C),  109  ;  (T),  50,  62, 
186,  193. 

Daniel  the  prophet,  1201. 

Dante,  as  seer,  1354. 

Darius  Hystaspes  (K),  359,  1378  k., 
1417. 

"  Dark-haired  "  race,  89. 

David  (K),  197  ff.,  415,  476,  478,  515, 
518,  5221,  529,  967  ff.  ;  his  poems, 
898,  902,  908  f.  ;  his  biographies, 
919. 

Dayan-Asshur  (K),  228. 

Dead  Sea,  273. 

Deborah  (prophetess),  188,  479; 
Song  of,  187  f.,  476,  479,  879,  897, 
913,  918. 


Debts  and  debtors  in  Israel,  575  f., 
584  f.,  1322  ;  in  Babylonia,  1323. 

Decalogue,  463  n.,  891  f. 

Deceit  and  fraud  in  Israel  (cf.  Hon- 
esty), 296,  592  ff .,  644,  955  ff.,  970, 
1320. 

Deiokes  (Dayakka,  K),  824;  (G), 
II,  app.  3. 

Deities,  national,  59,  I.  app.  2,  854  ; 
and  morality,  951,  985. 

Delegated  power,  56,  1386. 

Delilah,  see  Samson. 

Delphic  oracle,  1387. 

Delta  of  the  Nile,  347. 

Deluge  literature,  885  ff. 

Deluges,  1296,  1300  n. 

Dependencies:  Semitic,  39 f.,  53,  55, 
61,  683;  Hebrew,  53,  204  ff.,  112, 
215,  262,  268,  474,  540,  645 ; Baby- 
lonian, 921,  97  ff.,  109,  116,  123, 
178,  1044,  1076 ff.,  1152  ;  Egyptian 
(and  Ethiopian),  1341,  143 ff., 
3461,  678,  12401,  12501  ;  Assyr- 
ian, 175,  179 ff.,  218  ff..  242 ff., 
282-316,  326,  33111,  339,  3431, 
348  ff . ,  357  ff . ,  382  ff. .  630  ff . ,  650  ff ., 
675,688,  733,  741,  7491,  750,  762, 
765,  768,  771,  776,  793ff.,  806  «., 
8211,  839 ff.,  1036. 

Deportation,  01,  283,  288 ff.,  302, 
666,  673,  675,  1156  n.,  1232  k., 
1234,  1250,  1268  ff. 

Desert  literature,  891  ff. 

Deuteronomic  editing,  925  n. ,  1356  ff. 

Deuteronomy.  I.  app.  4,  502,  586, 
846  ff . ,  865ff. ,  943  ff. ,  1018, 1020  ff ., 
13431,  1361. 

Diarbekr  (Amedi,  C),  247. 

Dilmun  (I),  89,  96,  606. 

Diplomacy,  Oriental,  148  ff.,  163, 
175,  207,  213,  231,  249,  316,  655, 
679,  8251,  1051,  1379. 

Direction  (teaching,  the  Law),  457, 
488,  610 ;  Book  of  Direction  (cf. 
Deuteronomy),  8461 

Disciples  of  the  prophets,  995  1 ,  998, 
1065. 

Districts,  administrative,  206,  530. 

Divination,  see  Oracles. 

Divine  influence,  1097,  11131 


INDEX   I 


443 


Doctrines  (cf.  Faith),  1008  f. 
Drunkenness  in  Israel,  590,  041  ff. 
Dungi  (Ba'ukln,  K),  102. 
Dur-il  (C),  80. 
Dur-Sharrukin  (C),  607  ff. 
Dur-Yakin  (C),  664. 
Dushratta  (K),  150. 

E,  see  Elohist. 

Ea  (D),  85,  112,  738. 

Earthquakes,  204  f . 

Ebal  (M),  186. 

Ebedmelech  (0),  1228. 

Eclipses  of  the  sun,  259,  265,  I.  app. 
6.  1379. 

Eden  (L),  73,  112. 

Edessa  (C),  75. 

Edom  and  Edomites,  18,  26,  48,  55, 
132,  152,  204,  209,  215,  235  f.,  248, 
250,  254,  269,  273,  302,  325,  .",37, 
379,  512,  633,  675,  761,  787,  1157, 
1240/l,  1243,  1251,  1404  n. 

Egypt  and  Egyptians,  language,  80  ; 
writing,  872  f.  ;  trade,  97,  33  1  ; 
place-names,  132  f. ;  relations  with 
western  Asia  generally,  134  ff., 
151  ff.,  161  ff.,  210,  215,  313,  348 
ff.,  367,  440,  653,  756;  relations 
with  Hebrews,  see  Hebrews, 
Judah,  and  N.  Israel;  references 
to  Dynasty  IV,  134;  VI,  134; 
IX  and  X,  135  ;  XII,  135,  346  ; 
XIII-XVII,  130 ff.;  XVIII,  143 
ff.,  161  ff.;  XIX,  103  ff.;  XX, 
106  f.  ;  XXI,  207;  XXII,  207, 
210,  215,  345;  XXIII,  XXIV, 
313,  347  ;  XXV,  313,  348,  075, 
678;  693 f.,  756,  704 ff.;  XXVI, 
1029  ff.,  1222,  1305. 

Ehud  (J),  188,  964. 

Ekallati  (C),  180. 

Ekbatana  (C),  824,  1382,  1397. 

Ekron  (C),  55,  192,  075,  689  ff.,  695. 

Elah  (K).  212. 

Elain  and  Elamites,  54  f.,  79,  90,  92, 
98,  100  ff.,  113  f.,  120,  178,  247, 
021  ff.,  000  ff.,  672,  736  ff.,  751  f., 
779  ff.,  1163,  1285  «.,  1404. 

Elasah  b.  Shaphan,  1107. 

Elath(C),  209,  325. 


Elders,  36,  443,  486,  560,  1092, 
1310  f. 

Elegies,  898,  902,  1237  ff. 

Eli  (J),  195,  414,  490. 

Eliakim  (O),  097,  099  ;  b.  Josiah,  see 
Jehoiakim. 

Eliezer  (slave),  400. 

Elijah,  the  prophet,  239,  982  f.  ;  bi- 
ography, 935. 

Elisha,  the  prophet,  239-244,  012; 
biography,  935. 

Elishama  (O),  1119. 

Ellip  (L),  674. 

Elnathan  b.  Achbor,  1121  n. 

Elohist,  I.  app.  4,  890  f.,  894,  922  f. 

Elohistic  school,  930. 

Elteke  (C),  675,  695,  II.  app.  14. 

EIuIbbus,  see  Lule. 

Employments  of  Hebrews  :  in  Pal- 
estine, 483 f.,  507  ff.,  1275;  in 
Babylonia,  1274  ff.,  1301  ff. 

Ephod,  500. 

Ephraim,  186  (185),  188  f..  191,  190, 
200,  212,  275,  935;  (L),  275  n.  ; 
see  Israel,  Northern. 

Ephron  (Ch),  158. 

Epical  poetry,  883,  912. 

Eponym  canon,  210,  294,  I.  app.  6. 

Erech  (C),  88,  101  f.,  104,  107  f., 
1291. 

Eridu  (C),  101,  104,  112,  1291. 

Esagila  (Bit-elu,  temple),  112.  117, 
123,  749,  1060f.,  1395. 

Esarhaddon  (K),  341,  745 ff.,  II. 
app.  10,  1286. 

Esau  (Ch),  412. 

Ethbaal,  see  Ithobal. 

Ethics  and  ritual,  1017,  1023  ff., 
1094,  1114. 

Ethiopia,  see  Cush. 

Eukeus,  see  Ulai. 

Euphrates  (R),  22.  71  f.,  141,  145, 
219,  222,  225,  228,  237,329,  730  n., 
1058  f.,  1290  ff. 

"  European  Morals,"  010  n. 

Evil-Merodach  (K),  1081,  1369. 

Exile  (cf.  Hebrews  Exiled,  Deporta- 
tion), 290,  301  ff.  ;  Babylonian,  its 
character  and  influence,  1263  ff. 

Exiles  in  Babylonia,  1399. 


444 


INDEX    I 


Exodus,  of  Hebrews  from  Egypt, 
667,  879  ;  the  book,  925  f. 

Explorations  in  Babylonia,  87,  91, 
95  ;  in  Assyria,  667. 

Ezekiel  (the  prophet),  I.  app.  3. 
814,  833,  1081,  1143,  1174  ff., 
I268f.,  1336,  1342  ff.,  1353  f.,  1362, 
1360  f. 

Ezida  (BIt-kenu,  temple),  112,  117, 
1063. 

Ezion-geher  (C),  209. 

Faith,   Old   Testament,    607,    1008, 

1132  f.,  1138. 
Families,  396 ff.,  448,  1310  f. 
Fasts,  1116,  1118,  1346w. 
Fatherhood,     427  ff.  ;     figuratively, 

431  ff. 
Fayum,  the  (L),  347. 
Feasts  and  social  gatherings,  400  f. , 

504,  576,  862,  871,  040,  994,  1092, 

1246.  1344  ff. 
Federations,  of   tribes,  47  ff.,  53 f., 

468  ;  of  states,  54,  I.  app.  5. 
Fen  countries,  734  n. 
Fenchu  (P),  132. 
Finno-tartaric  language,  see  Sume- 

rians. 
Foresight,  prophetic,  1260,  1410. 
Fortresses    (cf.    Sieges),    204.    212, 

268,  311,  357,  664,  827,  1058,  1396. 
Fuller's  Field,  608,  1231. 

Gad  (T),  183,  191,  235;  (prophet), 

978. 
Gagu  (Gog,  Ch.),  777  «.,  814, 
Galilee  (L),  272,  274,  331,  I.  app. 

13. 
Gambulu  (P),  339,  661,  779. 
Gaingum  (L),  228,  629. 
Gate  of  Benjamin,  1221,  1228. 
Gath  (C),  152,  192,  197,  243??.,  632, 

689,  II.  app.  4. 
Gaza  (C),  152,  163,  192,  332,  625, 

675,  689. 
Geba  (C),  194,  106. 
Gebal,  see  Byblos. 
Gedaliah  (G),  1240 ff.,  1249. 
Gemariah  b.    Shaphan,    1119  f.  ;  b. 

llilkiah,  1167. 


Genesis  (book),  925 f.,  952. 

Ger,  see  Strangers. 

Geriziin  (M),  180. 

Gezer  (C),  152,  207. 

Ghor  (  L),  13ii. 

Gianium  (K),  228. 

Gibeah  (C),  IOC,  477,  965. 

Gibeon  (C),  185,  1248. 

Gideon  (J),  49,  51,  189,  415,  732  n., 

965,  972. 
Gifts  (cf.  Venality),  149  f.,  594  f. 
Gihon  (W),  697. 
Gilboa  (M),  198,  515. 
Gilead  (L),  129,  138,  141,  180.  190  f., 

190,  212.  233,  243,  262,  272,  274  f., 

337  (331),  I.  app.  13,  530?!. 
Gileadites,  316. 
Gilgal  (C),  185,  188,  477. 
Gilgamesh  epic,  912  n. 
Gilza  (C),  228. 
Gimirre.  see  Kiinmerians. 
Gmdibu'u  (Ch),  228  and  n.,  230. 
Girgashites  (P),  130. 
Gobryas  (Cr),  1386,  1395  f. 
Gods,  see  Deities,  Polytheism. 
Goel  (vindicator),  426,  486,  604?;., 

900,  1420. 
Gog,  see  Gagu. 
Gomer,  see  Kiinmerians. 
Government,  seeespeeiall}-  Hebrews, 

Assyrians. 
Gozan  (L),  343,  302. 
Greece  and  Phoenicia,  I.  app.  3. 
Greeks  in  Palestine,  032.  II.  app.  4  ; 

in   Cilicia,    735 ;    in   Egypt,    768, 

1030  ;  in  Asia  Minor,  1389. 
Gubi  (L),  96. 

Gudea  (Nabu,  K),  96,  98,  171. 
Guilds  and  professions,  484,  509  f., 

851  andn.,  871.  934,  1066,  1306  n. 
Gutium  (L),  92,  109,  171,  780,  1393, 

1395  f. 
Gyges  (Gugu,  K),  708,  773  ff. 

Habakkuk   and  his  prophecy,  1128 

ff..  1172. 
Iladad  (D),  59;   (Ch),  209. 
Hadadezer    (Dadda-idri,    K),    204, 

228. 
Iladad-Pimmon  (C),  I.  app.  5. 


INDEX   I 


445 


Hadrach  (Chatarika,  C),  258,  307  n., 
315. 

Hagar,  the  Egyptian,  430,  437  re. 

Ilalvs  (R),  1379. 

Hamath  (C),  125,  141,  201  f.,  226, 
228,  230  f.,  237,  241,  247,  262, 
305  ff.,  315,  331,  I.  app.  9,  624. 

Hanameel  of  Anathoth,  1225. 

Hananiah  (prophet),  1158  f. 

Hannah,  mother  of  Samuel,  430 ; 
her  Song,  908  f . 

Haran,  see  Charran. 

Harpagus  (Cr),  1384  n.,  1386. 

Hauran  (L),  242  f.,  787. 

Hazael  (K  of  Damascus),  236, 
241  ff.  ;   (Arabian),  741,  755. 

Hazo  (P),  755  re. 

Hazor  (C),  152,  331. 

Heber  (Ch),  550. 

Hebraic  peoples,  26,  284  ;  and  see 
Amnion,  Edom,  Moab. 

Hebrews  :  origin,  26  (18)  ;  racial 
endurance,  434  ff.,  963,  1263  ;  char- 
acter and  spirit  (cf.  Semites), 
434  f.,  526,  546  f.,  558  ;  relation  to 
outsiders,  548 ff.,  556  ;  colonies,  41 ; 
general  political  conditions,  47  ff., 
266,  296, 372  ff . ,  470  f . ,  521  ff . ,  557  ; 
government,  see  Rulers,  Chiefs, 
Elders,  Judges,  Princes,  King, 
Court,  Imposts,  Law ;  achieve- 
ments and  mission,  67  ff.,  385  ff., 
1028  ;  chronological  place,  70 ; 
language,  153,  392  f.  ;  writing, 
877  ff.  ;  trade,  206,  212,  231,  236, 
524  ;  culture,  1178  re. ,  morals  and 
religion,  61,  183,  195,  200,  210, 
239  f.,  271,  296  ff.,  314,  317  ff., 
354  ff.,  373,  377  f.,  381  f.,  442,  451, 
480  ff.,  489  f.,  493  ff.,  504  ff.,  533, 
574  ff . ,  007  ff .  ,613, 640  if.,  795  f .,  799, 
805,  II.  app.  7,  840  ff.,  927  f.,  940  ff., 
962,  1155 f.,  1182  ff.,  1320 ff.  ;  tribal 
history,  165  ff.,436  ff.,  182  ff.,369  IT., 
472  ff.,  879  ;  the  single  monarchy, 
195 ff.;  the  divided  kingdom,  see 
Israel  and  Judah  ;  Hebrews  ex- 
iled :  in  Assyrian  lands,  302  f.  ;  in 
Egypt,  1039  (1254  ff.)  ;  in  Baby- 
lonia   (cf.    Agriculture,    Employ- 


ments, Slaves,  Watercourses).  289 
1081,  1165  ff.,  1176  ».,  1272  ff. 

Hebron  (C),  137,  139,  152,  205. 

Hereditary  office,  560,  569  f. 

Hermon  (M),  125,  242. 

Herodotus,  1332  ?t.,  1412  re. 

Heroic  poetry,  see  Epical. 

Heroic  prose,  918  f. 

Heroic  virtues,  954,  903,  969. 

Heshbon  (C),  183. 

Hettites  (Chetta,  Chatte,  P),  41, 130, 
132,  152, 156  ff.,  179,  201,  200,  219, 
226,  284,  294,  I.  app.  5,  367  f.,  II. 
app.  4. 

Hezekiah  (K),  55,  287,  I.  app.  12, 
635,  637  f.,  075,  688,  092  f.,  095  ff., 
791  ff.,  II.  app.  11,  800  re.,  1002; 
his  Song,  909. 

Hiel  (Bethelite),  498  n. 

High  places,  see  Shrines. 

Hilkiah  (priest),  843,  846 f.,  850 f. 

Hillah  (C),  1293. 

Hindieh  (canal),  1293. 

Hinnom  (valley),  855,  1095. 

Hirelings,  541. 

Hirom  (Hiram,  K),  I.  45, 206;  11.310. 

History,  its  scope  and  treatment, 
4  ff.  ;  of  the  Semites,  5  ff.  ;  of  the 
Hebrews,  9  ff.,  385  ff.  ;  Hebrew 
conception  of,  434  f.,  955,  1356. 

History  and  prophecy,  131,  382 
(386),  723,  1419  f. 

Hivites  (P),  127,  130. 

Honesty,  1320  ff.,  1328. 

Hophni  (J),  490,  589. 

Hophra  (Apries,  K),  1207  f.,  1252, 
1255,  1365. 

Horses  (cf.  Army),  144,  475,  419  f., 
716. 

Rosea,  the  prophet,  304,  312  ff.,  320, 
354,  I.  app.  10,  600,  994. 

Hoshea  (K),  287,  332,  34:;  f.,  348  ff-. 

Hospitality,  see  Strangers. 

Host  of  heaven,  850. 

House-father,  405,  408  ff. 

Household,  396,  400.  404  ff. 

Huldah  (prophetess),  851. 

Hunting,  180,  819. 

llyksos  (!'),  135 ff.,  -".It;.  436,  437  n. 

llyrojades  (Cr),  1386. 


446 


INDEX   I 


Ibadid  (P),  630. 
Ibleam  (C),  267. 

[deals  and  practice  in  religion,  1012, 
1021. 

Idolatry  (cf.  Deities,  Polytheism, 
Religion),  320 f..  639 f.,  799,  854, 
860,  986,  1087,  1333  f. 

Ijon  (C).  331. 

Ilubi'id  (K),  see  Ya'ubi'id. 

Imgur-Bel  (wall),  749.  1058,  1061. 

Irnmanuel,  327  ff.,  I.  app.  12. 

Iramer  (S),  1273. 

Imperialism,  1261,  1315  f.,  1364. 

Imposts  (taxes,  tines,  tribute,  assess- 
ment), Hebrew,  2051,  310,  474. 
523,  1040  ;  Assyrian  and  Baby- 
lonian, 286  f.,  310,  675,  688,  1080  ; 
Egyptian,  1040. 

Imprisonment,  108  f.,  1221,  1224, 
1227,  1415. 

Indabigash  (K),  782. 

Individualism,  spiritual  (ef.  Relig- 
ion, personal),  1000,  1010,  1014  f., 
1201,  1204  f.,  1340  ff. 

Individuals  as  sufferers,  606. 

Industry  in  Israel  (cf.  Employ- 
ments), 268,  483  f.,  651. 

Interest  (usury)  in  Israel,  552,  576, 
1322  ;  in  Babylonia,  1323. 

Ionians,  see  Greeks. 

Iran  and  Iranians  (P),  823,  1374  ff. 

Irchulini  (K),  228. 

Irijah  (O),  1221. 

Irkanati  (K),  228. 

Iroquois  compared  with  Semites,  29. 

Irrigation,  see  Watercourses. 

Isaac  (Ch),  412.  444.  955,  959. 

Isaiah,  the  prophet.  309,  318  ff., 
3.26  ff.,  354  f.,  606,  641  ff.,  649,  652, 
654  ff.,  702,  704,  710  ff.,  728,  995, 
998,  1354. 

Isaiah  the  Second,  1345,  1353  f., 
1405  ff. 

Ischupri  (C),  756. 

Ishbosheth  i  [shba'al,  K),  203. 

Islnnael  b.  Hagar,  430  ;  b.  Netha- 
niah.  1243,  1245  ff. 

Ishme-Dagan  (K),  Babyl.,  104; 
Assyr.,   172. 

Ishtar  (D),  94,  101,  1185  ff. 


Isin  (C),  104,  110. 

Israel  (see  Hebrews),  names,  133, 
228,  232. 

Israel  (northern),  208C,  and  see 
Contents;  national  conditions, 
212,  264,  271  ff.,  374  ft'..  527  ff.  ; 
changes  of  dynasty,  211  f.,  236  ff., 
267,  278,  310.  332';  extent.  211  f., 
230,  235 ff.,  243,  262,  272,  352  ;  re- 
lations with  Judah,  see  Judah  ; 
relations  with  Phoenicia,  213,  233, 

230,  264,  377 ;  relations  with 
"Syria'1  (Damascus).  231  ff., 
243  ff.,  252,  262  f.,  270,  316,  376, 
380  ;  relations  with  Assyria,  228, 

231,  240  f.,  250,  253,  267,  314, 
331  f.,  380,  382  ff.  ;  relations  with 
Egypt,  210,  313  f.,  344,  348  ff.  ; 
outcome  of  its  history,  386  ff. 

Issachar  (T),  212. 
Ithamar  (K),  630. 
Ithobal   (Ethbaal,  K),  of  Tyre,  92, 

213;  of  Sidon,  675. 
Ittai  of  Gath,  550. 
Itti-Bel  (K),  92. 

J,  see  Jehovist. 

Jabbok  (R),  183. 

Jabesh  (C  in  Gilead),  191,  196,  575. 

Jacob  (Ch),  412  ff.,  444,  447  n.,  955, 

959. 
Jacob's  "Blessing,"  905,  913. 
Jacob-el  (C),  369  n. 
Jael  (heroine),  964. 
Jahaz  (C),  183. 
Jair  (J),  191. 
Janoah  (C),  331. 
Jashar  (book),  896,  906,  913. 
Jebusites  (P),  130,  204. 
Jehoahaz  (K).  of  Israel,  245 f. ,  252, 

1039  ;  of  Judah,  1039. 
Jehoash  (Joash,  K),  of  Judah,  221, 

243,  254.  317. 
Jehoiachin  (K),  1079  ff..  1143  ff. 
Jehoiada  (priest),  254. 
Jehoiakim      (K),      1039,      1075  ff., 

1120  ff. 
Jehoram  (Joram,  K),  of  Judah,  221, 

235  f. 
Jehoshaphat  (K),  221,  231,235. 


INDEX   I 


447 


Jehovah  (Yahwe),  in  proper  names, 
I.  app.  9;  his  character,  1009  f., 
1099,  1131,  1176;  his  relation  to 
Israel,  378,  407,  420,  429,  444,  454, 
457,  462,  488  f.,  526,  535,  581  ft'.. 
602,  700,  726 f.,  894,  906,  911,  922, 
999 1.,  1024,  1099.  1114,  1034  ft  ; 
his  false  worship,  320  f.,  854, 
1005  f.,  1015;  his  omnipresence, 
1337  f. 

Jehovist,  I.  app.  4,  885,  923  ff. 

Jehovist  and  Elohist  (J  E),  923,  935, 
943  f . 

Jephthah  (J),  191,  965  ;  his  lament, 
908. 

Jeremiah,  the  prophet,  813,  1065, 
1007  ff.,  1082  ff.,  1139  ff.,  121')  ff.. 
1242,  1252  ff.,  1341,  1349,  1366; 
his  disciples,  1336 ;  the  book, 
1082  n. 

Jericho  (C),  185,  498  n. 

Jeroboam  (K),  I,  200 ff.,  1357;  II. 
262 ff.,  3(16,  519. 

Jerusalem  (C),  40,  57,  126,  128,  139, 
152,  204  ff.,  210,  243,  254,  260, 
276  f.,  318  ff.,  325,  478,  075,  677, 
687  i.,  696  ff.,  730,  861,  998,  1039, 
1079,  1178,  1180,  1214  ff.,  1230  ff., 
1238  f.,  1241. 

Jesus  and  the  Old  Testament,  015  ff. 

Jezebel  (Q),  213. 

Jezreel  (Esdraelon,  L),  139,  141, 
198,  2(13.  213,  2-10,  272,  331,  304, 
479,  530  ».,  685,  1034  ;  (C),  236. 

Joab  (Cr),  57,  203,  205,  523. 

Joah  (O),  699. 

Joash  (Jehoash,  K),  of  Israel,  252  f., 
202. 

Job  (the  book),  599  f.,  1353. 

Johanan  (G),  1243,  1246,  1248  f. 

Jonadab  (<  !h),  410. 

Jonathan,  b.  Saul.  196 ff.,  415,  515, 
732  //.,  OOO,  072;    (scribe),  1221. 

Joppa  (C),  152,  675,  695. 

Joram  (Jehoram),  king  of  Israel. 
221,  231,  235  ff. 

Jordan  (R),  125,  120,  141,  1109. 

Josepb  1).  Jacob,  as  a  moral  type, 
960  f.  ;  tribally,  935. 

Joseph-el  (C),  869n. 


Joshua  (Ch),  183 ff.;  (book),  I. 
app.  4. 

Josiah  (K),  807,  838  ff.,  1027, 
1033  ff.,   1009  ff. 

Jotham  (K),  269,  308  f. 

Jotham  b.  Gideon  ;  his  parable,  908, 
910. 

Judah  (T),  180,  188 f.,  196,  200,  905. 

Judah  (L  and  P)  :  national  condi- 
tions, 210,  272  ff.,  296,  379,  527, 
686,  791  ff.,  1027,  1314;  relations 
with  N.  Israel,  210  ff.,  215,  239, 
260  f.,  208,  315  f.,  378;  relations 
with  Edom,  215,  235  f.,  254,  325; 
relations  with  Syria,  215,  231, 
238,  243,  254,  270  ;  relations  with 
Assyria,  254,  300  ff.,  383  f.,  633, 
648,  050  ff.,  075  ff.,  085  ff.,  793  ft'., 
II.  app.  5.  ;  relations  with  Baby- 
lonia, 670,  837 f.,  1044,  1070  ff.. 
1090  ff.,  1113  ff.,  1130  ff.,  1148  ff., 
1208  ff.  ;  relations  with  Egypt, 
210,  215,  273,  652,  654  ff.,  697, 
711,  715 f.,  719  f.,  10761,  1087  f., 
1123,  1105  ».,  1208  f.  ;  after  the 
kingdom  :  in  Palestine,  1240  ff. ; 
in  Egypt,  1254  ff.  ;  in  Babylonia, 
see  Exiles. 

Judaism,  1251,  1348. 

Judges  (rulers),  43,  50 f. ,  455,  457. 
408,  487,  510,  590  f.,  598. 

Judges,  the,  187  0'..  564,  920,  963  ff. 

Judges,  book  of,  408  f.,  917  f.,  920, 
1361. 

Justice  in  Israel  (cf.  Law),  457, 
461,  475,  486  ff.,  502,  510,  578  f., 
588 ff.,  859,  1228;  in  Babylonia, 
1322  ff. 

Kadesh  (C),  on  the  Orontes,  145, 
162f.,  202,  I.  app.  5;  Ka.lcsh- 
Barnea,  183. 

Kaftu  (L),  132. 

K'alach  (Calah.  ('),  175,  220,  249, 
283,  3ll,  667,  820. 

Kallima-SIn     K).  149. 

Kalparuda  |  K  >,  22s. 

Kana'na  |  <  !anaab,  L),  132. 

Karaindasb  (  K  1,  176. 

Karbanit  ((J),  764. 


44S 


INDEX   I 


Karduniash  (L.  Babylonia),  121. 

Karkar  (C),  228  ff.,  624. 

Karaak,  see  Thebes. 

Karon,  .see  L'lai. 

Kasiphia  (S),  1273  ;;. 

Kasshites  (P),  79,  120  ff.,  141, 174  ff., 

219».,  223,  074,  1285. 
Kaiishmalak  (K).  337. 
Kebar  (Kabar,    Chebar,  W),  1081, 

1272.  12!»0,  1299  f.,  1305. 
Keclar  (LP),  787  f. 
Kedesh  (C),  331. 
Keileh  (C),  152. 
Kenites  (P),  186,  416,  493,  550. 
Kenizzites  (P),  186. 
Khorsabad,  see  Dur-Sharruken. 
Kidron  (valley),  697. 
Kimmerians   (P,  Gomer,   Gimirre), 

758  f.,  774  f.,  814,  1384. 
King  and  kingdom  :   Semitic,  36  f., 

50 ff.,  396 n.;  Hebrew,  50 ff.,  195, 

199,    205  f.,    277  f.,    371  ff.,    468, 

521  ff.,  528  f..  534  ff.,  587,  II.  app. 

1,  844  ».,  989,  1070  f.;    idealized. 

603 f.;    Assyrian,    171  f.,    182  ff.; 

Babylonian,  98,  108,  120  f. 
Kings  (book).  1357  ff. 
King's  Garden,  1231. 
Kinnereth  (lake),  331. 
.Kinship,     396  ff.  ;     its    symbolism, 

426,  429,  432  f. 
Kipkip  (C),  767. 
Kir  (L),  336. 

Kirte  (Kirche?),  179,  217 f.,  220. 
Kish  (C),  672. 
Kishon  (R),  479. 
Kissia  (L),  106,  120. 
Kitlala  (C),  228. 
Kommagene,  see  Kummuch. 
Kudur-mabug  (K),  108,  114. 
Kudurnanchundi  (K),  107. 
Kudurlagamar,  see  Chedorlaomer. 
Kue  (L,  E.  Cilicia),  228,  230,  I.  app. 

5,  029,  CAM). 
Kummuch  (  L,  Kommagene),    179, 

218,  226,  228,  284,  294,  666. 
Kundashpi  (K),  228. 
Kurigalzu  (K),  I.  149;  II,  175. 
Kushites  (Cushites),  see  Ethiopians. 
Kyaxares  (K),  824  f. 


Laban  (Ch),  412  f. 

Labasi-Marduk  (K),  1370. 

Lachish  (C),  152,  688,  690,  693,  II. 
app.  12.  14,  121:;. 

Lagash  (C),  95  ff. 

Laish  (Dan,  C),  41. 

Lalli  (K),  228. 

Lamech's  Song,  889. 

Lamentations  (book),  1237  ff. 

Land,  its  acquisition  and  parti- 
tion, 563  ff.,  1344;  private  tenure 
(cf.  Property),  580 ff.,  610 n. 

Landmarks,  583. 

Language  and  social  institutions, 
391  ff . 

Larissa  (S).  827  n. 

Larsa  (Elasar,  C),  101, 104, 108,  111. 

Law,  the,  see  Direction. 

Law  and  legislation,  450.  474,  486  ff., 
541  ff.,  552,  5761,  584  ».,  847  f., 

882,  891  f.,  920  ff. 
Law  of  Holiness,  1002. 

Lebanon  (M),  90,  125,  141,  219.  315. 

Leontes,  see  Litany. 

Levi  (T),  935. 

Levirate  custom,  417. 

Levites.  as  priests,  504,  863,  1019. 

Leviticus  (book),  924  n. 

Libnah  (C),  703.  709. 

Libyans  (P),  207,  345. 

Litany  (K),  125,  144. 

Literature,  defined,  883,  899  ;  and 
writing,  882,  901. 

Literature,  Hebrew  :  conditions  and 
occasions,  866  ff.,  891  ff..  898  ff., 
914  ff.,  939 ff.,  1350  11,  1405;  its 
spirit  and  style,  11  ff. ,  253.  435, 
446,  440,,..  459,  007,  728f.,  744  »., 
868,  890,  893,.  904,  913,  927  f.,  034, 
1080  ».,  1086h.,  1134,  1145  f.,  1175, 
1178  h.,  1212,  1238,  1351,  1350, 
1402,  1405  ff.,  1415  n.  ;  contents, 
442  ff.,  883  ff.,  1335  ff.,  1401  ff.  ; 
form,  887  f.,  918,  938,  1117,  1237, 
1352  f.  ;  non-Hebraic  elements, 
886  f.,    932;  periods   and  epochs, 

883,  899ff.,  007,  012,  937  f.,  1350, 
14DO  f. 

Local  government,  Hebrew,  52. 
"  Lost  Tribes,"  363. 


INDEX    I 


440 


Lull  (Elulseus,  K),  675,  081  f. 
Lybians  (P),  210,  343,  770,  1080. 
Lycians  (P),  1389. 
Lydia    (L),    157,    773  ff.,     1379  f., 
1387  ff. 

Maacha  (L),  204. 

Machalliba  (C),  G75. 

Madai,  see  Medes. 

Magdiel  (C),  152. 

Magic  (cf.  Oracles),  644. 

Magog  (LP),  814. 

Makan  (Magan,  L),  91,  96. 

Makara  (Q),  145. 

Maledictions,    1104  ff.,    1112,    1159, 

1169  f.,  1257. 
Malik  and  mall-  ("  counsellor  "  and 

"  king  "),  36,  I.  app.  2. 
Manasseh  (T),  183,  189,   196,  212, 

275;  (K),   761,  780,  790,  798  ff., 

1003  ff.,  1122  n. 
Manda  (Scythian),  758  n. 
Mannai  (PL),   628,  758,  777,  1384, 

1403. 
Mansuati  (C),  250. 
Mar(u)duk,  see  Merodach. 
Marduk-nadin-ache  (K),  180. 
Marduk-zakir-shum  (K),  (571. 
Mari  (K,  Benhadad  III),  251  f. 
Marratim  (L),  1403  n. 
Marriage,  417  ff.,  426  f.,  949,  1332. 
Marsiman  (P),  630. 
Mash  (L),  788. 
Mashga  (C),  228. 
Masius  (M),  71,  217  f.,  220. 
Matinu-ba'al  (K),  228. 
Mazares  (Cr),  1386. 
Media    and    Medes    (Madai),    224, 

247  f.,  258,  294,   311,  3621,  627, 

629,    674,    758,     760,     777,    812, 

823ff.,  1051,  1374,  1379,  1401. 
Mediterranean  Sea,  00  f.,  ISO,  219  ; 

Assyrian  name,  170  f.  ;  coast  land. 

71,  331  ;  coast  land  peoples,  IOC. 
Medo-Persian  empire,  1386  ff.,  1413. 
Megiddo   (C),    141,    145,    152,    163, 

210  n.,  1034. 
Melchizedek  (K),  37. 
Melikoff  (name),  I.  app.  2. 
Melkart  (D),  59. 


Melucka  (D),  96,  675,  678,  755  n., 

780. 
Memphis  (C),   313,    347,   050,   750, 

707,  1030. 
Menahem   (K),   Hebrew,  207,   306, 

310,  610  ;  Phoenician,  675. 
Mentu  (D),  144. 
Memeptah  (K),  166 f.,  879. 
Merodach  (Maruduk,  Marduk,  D), 

85,  112,  117,  123,  748  f.,  818,  1054, 

1383,  1393  ff.,  1398. 
Merodach-baladan    (K),    340.    021, 

037,  600  ff.,  071  f.,  079  ;  his  sons, 

751. 
Mesha  (K),  212,  221,  235. 
Meshech,  see  Mushke. 
Mesopotamia   (L),   18,   41,    71,   75, 

132,  137,  141,   145  f.,  154  f.,   173, 

175  f.,  178,   181,   188,  217  f. 
Messianic  ideal,  603  f.,  916,  1161. 
Metenna  (K),  II.  app.  10. 
Micah  (the  prophet),  319,  321,  354, 

356,  606,  644  f.,   798  ?«.,    800,    II. 

app.  8,  998,  1092. 
Micaiah  b.  Gamariah,  1119. 
Mice,  705,  707,  II.  app.  13. 
Michmash  (C),  196,  087. 
Midianites  (P),  50,  183,  189. 
Mikado,  as  illustration,  431. 
Milcom  (D),  59,  855  ;  cf.  Molech. 
Militarism  (cf.  Warfare),  318,  613, 

889,  1261,  1420. 
Militene  (Milid,C),  228,  029. 
Milton  and  Isaiah,  1400. 
Minseans  (P),  878  n. 
Minni  (P),  see  Mannai. 
Miriam  and  her  Song,  44i>  n.,  890, 

913. 
Mita  (K).  027. 

Mitani  (L),  132,  150,  154  f.,  102. 
Mitinti  (Metinti,    K),   of  Askalon, 

332  ;  of  Ashdod,  675. 
"Mixed     multitude"     (Bedawin), 

453.  550. 
Mizpah  (C),  1240,  1242  ff. 
Moab  and  Moabites,  18,  20,  4s.  50, 

138,  183,  188,  100,  201.  201),  215, 

231,    233.    235.    203,    268  f.,    273, 

337,  550  ».,  633,  075,  701.  sol  f., 

972,  1157,  1240,  1243,  1251. 


2g 


450 


INDEX    I 


Mohammed  (cf.  Islam),  567  »..  568, 
965,  1328. 

Molech  (Moloch,  I>  .  1.  app.  2,  855, 
1006. 

Monarchy,  see  King. 

Monotheism  (of.  Jehovah,  Religion), 
L338. 

Monuments,  see  especially  As- 
syrians, Babylonians. 

Mi  ion-worship,  856. 

Morality:  its  evolution,  611  fl,  950, 
980  ff.  ;  Christian  and  Hebrew, 
615  ff.  ;  its  criteria  and  standards. 
948 ff.,  964,  1258 ff.  ;  conditions 
and  basis,  950,  958,  962,  984ff., 
1000  f.,  1016. 

Moresheth-Gath  (C),  356. 

Moschi,  see  Mushke. 

Moses,  the  lawgiver,  18.'!.  440  ft*.  ;  his 
Blessing,  935. 

Motherhood,  430. 

Mughek  (Ur,  S),  100. 

Musa  ibn  Nosair  (Ch),  568  n. 

Mushke  (Meshech,  "Moschi.  LP), 
179,  217,  027  ff.,  666. 

Musri  (L),  228,  230,  I.  app.  5;  cf. 
437  n. 

Mm -Adda  (Cr),  152. 

Mutilation  of  the  dead,  285  n. 

Myth  making.  1184  ff. 

Nabatseans  (P),  755«. 

Nabonassar  ( K),  293. 

Nali.  .nidus  (K),  87,  1371  f.,  1392  ff., 

1401. 
Nabopalassar    (K),    822  f.,     8251, 

1042,  1370  n. 
Nabopaliddin  i  K),  219n. 
Naboth  of  Jezreel,  583,  606,  981  f. 
Nabu-bel-shumi  (Ch),  784. 
Nadab  (K),  211. 
Nagitu  (C).  734.  737  f. 
Naharlna  (Mesopotamia),  132,  145, 

150. 
Nahrel  Kelb,  1213  n. 
Nahum,  the  prophet,  831  ff.,    1129, 

1138. 
Na'iri  (L),  179,  216. 
Naming,  in  Israel,  1040  n.,  1411  n. 
Nainri  (Nainar,  L),  258. 


Nana  (Ishtar,  D),  101,  107. 

Napata  (C),  347. 

Naphtali  (TL),  272,  276,  331,  I. 
app.  13,  47V. 

Naram-Sin  (K),  87  ff. 

Nathan  (prophet),  his  parable,  910, 
077  f. 

National  literature.  915  f. 

Nationalism,  Hebrew  (cf.  Patriot- 
ism). 4701,  515,  0071 

Nationality.  Semitic  46  ff.,  13151; 
and  religion,  61. 

Natnu  (Ch),  7871 

Naturalization,  see  Adoption. 

Nature-worship,  321,  1184  ff. 

Navigation,  Phoenician,  66  ;  Babylo- 
nian, 1305  n. 

Nebaioth  (Nabatseans,  LP),  787  f. 

Nebo  (D),  57,  59,  112,  117.  240.  I. 
app.  7.  sis.  820,  1054,  1056.  1063, 
1302.  1394  :   (M),  188;  (C),  235. 

Neboshazban  (Cr),  1233 n. 

Nebuchadrezzar  (K)  :  I,  178,  1280; 
II,  42.  4o7.  825,  1042,  1052  ff., 
1075ff..  1115.  1137.  1107.  1171. 
1210. 1213. 1231, 1235.  1241.  1273. 
1277.  1286,  1296  1,  1337,  1364  ff.. 
1370,  1403.  1414. 

Nebuzaradan  (Cr),  1232,  1240, 
1242. 

Necho  (K)  :  I,  766,  768,  1029  ;  II, 
827,  1031  ff.,  1043,  1207. 

Negeb  (L),  273. 

Nemitti-Bel  (rampart),  740,  1053. 

Nergal  (D),  85,  94,  228,  818. 

NergalJshar-usur  :  (1)  b.  Sinacherib, 
744  ;  (2)  see  Neriglissar. 

Nergal-ushezib  (K),  739. 

Neriglissar  (K),  1233  n..  1370. 

Nestorians,  30,  I.  app.  2. 

New  Testament  and  Old,  01-",  ff. 

New  Year's  festival.  1302.  1304. 

Nile  valley.  3461 

Nimrud.  see  Kalach. 

Nina  (Ishtar,  D),  171  f. 

Nineveh  (C),  391,  74,  141.  1711, 
175.  247.  283.  341,  741  ft'.,  750, 
762,  815.  S24  ff. 

Ninus  (K),  210. 

Niphates  (M),  71. 


INDEX    I 


4.",  I 


Nippur  (Xuffar.  C),  91,  04,  101, 
104  f.,  108,  110,  112,  293,  1081, 
1284  ff. 

Nisibis  (C),  75.  141,  217. 

Nisroch,  see  Xusku. 

Nobles,  see  Rulers. 

Nomads  and  nomadic  life  (cf.  Tri- 
balism), CO,  400  11,  416,  424 1., 
438 ff.,  405 ff.,  11411,  1384. 

Noph  (C),  see  Memphis. 

Nubia,  see  Cush. 

Numbers  ia  <  lid  Testament,  I.  app. 
6,  443  ».,  460,  II.  app.  6,  13; 
(book),  0251. 

Nur-Raminan  (K),  108. 

Nusku  (I)),  744,  818. 

Obadiah  (book).  14()4  //. 
Obelisks  (^Egyptian),  767  n.,  1255  n. 
Occupations,  see  Employments. 
Old    Testament,    in   our  evolution, 

611  ff.  ;  and  New,  614  ff. 
Omri  (Ki,  212,  239. 
Omri-land    (N.     Israel),    see     Bit- 

Chumri. 
On  (Heliopolis,  C),  657,  767,  1255  n. 
Onesimus  (slave),  406. 
Opis  (0),  1395  f. 
Oracles,  488,  702  (1071),  1073,  1210, 

1215.  1220.  1253,  1387. 
Oratorical  literature,  938  ff. 
( (ratory.  Hebrew,  940. 
Ormuzd,  see  Ahuramazda. 
Orontes   (R),    125,   141,    161,   282, 

226. 
Osorkon  II  (K).  215. 
Othniel    .!  |,  188,  550. 

P,  see  Priestly  narrative. 
Padan-Aram  (L  .  75,  I.  app.  9. 
Padi  (K).  075.  692,   695,    II.    app. 

14. 
Pakrura  (G),  700. 
Palestine     'collectively),    17,   51  f., 

90,    125  1Y..    L32 f . ,   L35ff.,    151  li., 

163  ff.,  204,  291,  780. 
Pallakopas  i  W),  100,  1293. 
Panics  explained,  702  n. 
Parentage,  430. 
Parsua  (L),  221. 


Parties  and  partisanship  in  Israel. 
598ff.,  c.07,  its;),  987  f.,  991, 
1093  ff.,  1149,  1157  ff. 

Pasebchanu  (K),  207. 

Pasbhur  (b.  Immer),  1111 ;  (b. 
Malchiah),  1215. 

Past nial  life  (cf.  Nomads;,  470,  47'.». 

Pasture-grounds,  38,  565,  1304. 

Patin,  see  Chattin. 

putrin  potestas,  408  ff. 

Patriarchs  of  Israel,  137  ;  in  history, 
442  ff.  ;  their  morality,  948  ff..  001 . 

Patriotism :  Semitic,  61  ;  Hebrew, 
470  f.,  470,  900,  915,  907.  1024, 
1123,  1156,  122:; ;  prophetic,  723, 
1113f.,  1258ff.,  lino. 

Pekab  (K),  316  (325),  332, 1,  app.  13. 

Pekahiah  (K),  316. 

Pekod  (P),  339,  1403  n. 

Pelusium  (C),  705,  709. 

Penned  (Peniel,  C),  210. 

Pepi  (K),  134. 

Perizzites  (P),  127,  130. 

Persia  (Persis,  E),  1374,  1378. 

Persian  Gulf,  extent,  71  ;  naviga- 
tion, 737  f. 

Persians  (cf.  Iranians),  political 
tendencies,  56. 

1'.  sept.  (L),  766. 

Pestilence,  259,  201  f,.,  704,  707,709, 
II.  app.  13. 

Pethor  (Pitru,  C),  228. 

Petra  (C),  251. 

Pharisaism.  010  f. 

Philemon  (slave-owner),  406. 

Philistian  plain  (Palastu),  13d,  141,. 
250,  645,  684. 

Philistines  and  their  cities,  50.  54,, 
ic,4,  100,  192ff.,  100  ff.,  200, 
203 ff.,  211,  243,  248,  264,  268, 
27:;,  302,  015.  :;2-,  :::12,  371,  470, 
491  f.,  512.  515.  631  f.,  651,  675, 
077.  684,  690ff.,  701,  li>4o. 

Phinehas  (J),  490,  589. 

Phoenicians,  classification,  18; 
names.  102  f.  ;  achievements,  66, 
151.  os.",;  colonies  ami  govern- 
ment, 12  \<i..  I.  app.  0.  772  ;  trade 

and  navigati 12  11..  1  97  1,  128, 

184,  206   (209),   230,    1.    a]. p.    0, 


452 


INDEX   I 


737  f.,  1031,  1307  ;  religion  and 
deities,  137,  213  ;  events  in  his- 
tory, 126,  144  f.,  152,  104,  100. 
180.  184.  219,  230,  311,  315.  675, 
680 ff.,  753,  761,  772  f.,  821.  See 
especially  Sidon,  Tyre. 

Phraortes  (K),  824. 

Pianola  (K).  347. 

Pisgah  (M),  1244. 

Pisiris  (K),  028. 

Planet  worship,  1061,  1063. 

Polyandry.  417  f. 

Polygamy-,  200,  424,  449. 

Polytheism,  national,  59 f. 

Poverty  in  Israel :  its  occasions,  541, 
572,  575  ;  its  consequences,  573  ff. , 
601  ;  the  "  poor  "  as  a  class,  598  ff. 

Preaching,  see  Prophesying. 

Prediction  (cf.  Foresight),  1147, 
1367.  1410  f.,  1418  f. 

Priest-kings.  57,  98,  172. 

Priestly  narrative,  885  ff.,  891  f., 
923  ff. 

Priests  and  priesthood  in  Israel,  488, 
504  f.,  570.  588  f.,  042  f.,  974, 
1013  ff..  1101,  1170,  1344 f.,  1351  ; 
as  counsellors,  488  f. ,  1015;  their 
achievements,  1017  f.  ;  Babylo- 
nian, 339,  660,  1287  f.,  1392. 

Primogeniture,  420. 

Princes  (rulers),  455,  476  n.,  487, 
531,  592,  1092,  1221.  1312. 

Professional  prophets,  1093,  1103  ff. 

Property  (cf.  Land),  its  influence 
in  society  and  politics,  425,  563. 

Prophesying,  937  ff. 

Prophetic  histories,  923  f.,  934. 

Prophets  and  Prophecy,  195,  214, 
244,  295  ff.,  313  ff.,  318  ff.,  382, 
402,  488,  532,  540,  570,  589  re., 
GOO,  606,  610,  725,  829,  851,  930  ff.. 
983,  '.".'3,  1005 ff.,  1133,  1145  f., 
1172.  1200,  1258ff.,  1336ff.,  1315. 
lion  if.,  1418  ff. 

Proverbs  (book),  600,  910;  their 
limitations,  999  ff. 

Psalms,  by  David  (?)  909  ;  motives 
of  composition,  605  f.  ;  partisan, 
598  ff.;  "  vindictive,"  609  re., 
1108  re.  i  of  exile,  1363. 


Psammetichus,    (K)    I,   768,   774  f., 

812,  1029  ;   II,  1207. 
Ptah  (D),  705. 
Pteria  (C),  159,  1387. 
Ptolemy,  canon  of,  293,  I.  app.  6. 
Pudu'il(K),  075. 
Pul,  Pulu,  see  Tiglathpileser  III, 
Punt  (P),  145,  1089  n. 
Put  (P),  770,  1089. 
Pythia,  the,  851  n. 

Queen  of  Heaven.  850,  1094,  1256. 
Queens,  see  Women. 

Rabbath-Ammon  (C),  204. 

Rabmag  (title),  1233  re. 

Rabsaris  (title).  699,  1233  n. 

Rabshakeh  (title),  290,  099  ff.,  II. 
app.  14. 

Rachel  bat  Laban,  413. 

Ramah  (C),  477,  1242. 

Ramman  (cf.  Rimmon,  D),  172, 
228. 

Ramman-nadin-ache  (K),  177. 

Hamman-niiTiri  (K),  I,  175;  II,  210  ; 
III,  248  ff.,  282.  I.  app.  7. 

Ramoth  (C).  212.  215.  231,  235 f. 

Ramses  (K),  II,  103,  105  ;  III,  166  f., 
207. 

Raphia  (Bapichu,  Befa,  C).  025, 
750. 

Reading,  public.  1117. 

Rebekah  hot  Bethuel,  412. 

Keehabites  (T).  410,  1141  f. 

Red  Sea  traffic,  97.  200,  209,  2*15, 
236,  254,  201.  269. 

Reforms  in  Israel.  852  ff.,  1019  ff. 

Regnal  year,  II.  app.  6. 

Rehob  (L),  204. 

Rehoboain  (K),  208,  210. 

Religion  among  the  Semites  :  its  po- 
litical influence,  58  ff.,  99.  299, 
551.  039,  774  h.,  II.  app.  7,841; 
syncretism,  00,  299.  495.  855, 
1155  ;  religion  and  kinship,  397. 
4o-_'  f.  ;  boundtothesoil,61,289f., 
495,  551.  009,  1024  :  its  scope  and 
motive,  495.  497  ff!,  504  ff.,  OOl. 
911,  985  ;  Hebrew  religion  distinc- 
tive, 62,  613  ;  personal  religion  in 


INDEX   I 


45c 


Israel,  607  ff.,  980,  985  ff.,  1009  ff., 
1840,  1349;  in  a  Gentile,  1054. 
For  the  types,  see  the  several  divi- 
sions of  the  Semitic  race. 

Representative  government,  50  (29, 
37). 

Reshep  (D),  137. 

Eetenu  (L,  Syria),  132,  145. 

Reuben  (T),  183,204,  935. 

Rezon  (K),  I,  209  ;  II,  310,  333,  335. 

Rhabdomancy,  I2iuf. 

Rhapsodists,  871,  894. 

Rhodes  (I).  I.  app.  3. 

Rhodes,  Cecil,  as  an  historical  type, 
955,  1411  n. 

Rib-addi  (G),  152. 

Riblah  (C),  1038,  1213. 

Riches  and  the  public  weal,  571  ff.  ; 
the  "rich"  as  a  class,  98 ff.;  cf. 
018. 

Eimmon  (Ramman,  D),  of  Damas- 
cus, 59  ;  of  Aleppo,  228. 

Eizpah  bat  Aiah,  972. 

Eoads,  great,  202. 

Roman  social  institutions  cited, 
408  ff.,  413  f.,  421,  424  f.,  427. 

Rulers  (cf.  Princes,  Judges,  Chiefs, 
Elders).  530  ff.,  559,  509,  587, 
642  f.,  974. 

Ruth  (book),  470,  550  n. 

Saba'a  (P.  North  Sabseans),  334, 630. 

Sabako  (K),  347,  I.  app.  14,  625. 
705. 

Sabataka  (K),  I.  app.  14,  625,  630, 
632,  II.  app.  4. 

Sabbath,  1346  f. 

Sachi  (L).  797. 

Sacrifice  and  sacrifices,  738,  10061, 
1014. 

Sacrificers,  489,  505,  585,  863,  1014. 

Saia  (C),  766,  1030. 

Salamanu  (K  ;  cf.  Shalman),  837. 

Samaria  (C),  40,  128,  212,  264, 
275 f.,  289,  848,  349  ff.,  I.  app. 
10,  1247  ;  (L)  see  Israel  North- 
ern ;  Assyrian  province,  024  f., 
t;58,  686,  799. 

Samgar-Nebo  (Cr),  1233  n. 

Bamsi  (Q),  334,  080. 


Samsiruna  (C),  675. 

Samson  (J),  193,  905  ;  his  biogra- 
phy. 908,  917  f. 

Samsu-iluna  (K),  118. 

Samuel  (J  ),  1951,  430,  595,  0751  ; 
(book),  908  1,  935,  1361. 

Sanibu  (K),  337. 

Sapalel  (K),  163. 

Sardanapalus,  see  Asshurbanipal. 

Sardis  (C),  775,  1387  ff. 

Sarepta  (C),  075. 

Sargon  (K):  I,  89  ff.,  112  ».,  007  ; 
II,  42,  287,  358  ff.,  I.  app.  10, 
15,  16,  020  ff.,  653  ff.,  000  ff.,  722, 
II.  app.  2,  4,  5. 

Sarsechim  (title),  1233  n. 

Satarna  (K),  150. 

Saul  (K),  190  ff.,  415,  517,  5211, 
525,  975  ;  his  biography,  919,  935. 

Scythians  (P),  777  n.,  810  ff.,  821, 
824,  13831,  1401. 

Scythopolis  (C),  812n. 

Seers  (cf.  Prophets),  937. 

Seir  (M),  109. 

Semiramis  (Q),  249,  I.  app.  7. 

Semites  (collectively),  characteris- 
tics, 51,  1140  ;  course  of  history, 
9  ff.,  171,  174,  1045;  territory, 
17  ff.  ;  classification,  181;  dis- 
tribution, 20 ff.,  79 ff.,  105m.,  223  ; 
languages,  I.  app.  1  ;  religion 
and  deities,  57  ff.,  187.  104,  283, 
289 f.  ;  political  tendencies,  28  ff., 
289,  591,  097  «.,  778,  14141  See 
the  several  divisions  of  the  race. 

Senir  (Sanir,  M),  242. 

Senkereh  (Larsa,  C),  101. 

Sepharvaim  (C),  94,  34'.). 

Seraiah  b.  Neriah,  1172. 

Seraphim,  1 1 7 1 '.  u. 

Serpent,  Brazen,  854. 

Servant  of  Jehovah,  1202.  1420. 

Servants  and  servitude,  cf.  slaves 
ami  hirelings. 

Sesostris,  see  Ramses  II. 

Sethon  (Seti,  K),  705. 

Seti  [(K),  163. 

Seve  (K),  343,  349,  I.  app.  14,  025. 

Sexual  morality,  213,  321  1.  59<;, 
867,  9501'.,  965,  971,  11891,  1330, 


154 


INDEX   I 


1332  ;    in   law   and    prescription, 

957,  1190,  1330ff. 
Shabara'in  (C).  349. 
Shagur  (Pethor,  C).  228. 
Shallum  (K),  207. 
.shallum  b.  Josiah,  see  Jehoahaz. 
Mialnian  (K  ).  314,  I.  app.  8,  681. 
Shalmaneser  (K),  I.  175;  II.  221  ff.. 

237  f.,    240  ft'..    341  :     III.    256 f.  ; 

IV,  342  ff.,  349 ;  Fort,  228. 
Shamash  (Shainsu,  D),  !)4. 
Shamash-shum-ukin  (K).  763,  77s 

780ff.,  II.  app.  17. 
Shamgar  (J).  479. 
Shamshi-Ramman  (K):  I.  172;  IV. 

247. 
Shangar  (K),  228. 
Shaphan  (O),  843,  840,  8-30. 
Shapiya    C  .  340. 
'■'  Sharezer,"  744  /;. 
Sharhldari   (K),   of  Askalon,   67"), 

691  ;  of  Pelusium,  7G6. 
Sharuhen  ,C).  144. 
Shasu    (Bedawin),     132,     135    ff.. 

167. 
Shatt-el-Hai  (R),  95,  100. 
Shatt-en-Nil    (R),  94,    100 f..   1274, 

1290,  12991 
Sheba  (L).  145. 
Shebna  (O),  697,  609. 
Shechem  (C),  49,  189,  208,  210,  477, 

563  >/.,  1247. 
Shemaiah  (exile),  1109 f. 
Shepherd  princes,  see  Hyksos. 
Sheshbazzar  (prince),  1312. 
Shian  (L),  228. 
Shiloh  (0),  186,  194,  400,  504,  1001, 

1003,  1247. 
Shinar  i  Shumer,  L),  lOOff. 
Sliishak  (Sheshonk.  K),    207,   210, 

345. 
Shrines  (cf.  Temple).  400.  400,  504, 

800.  '.''.'I.  n  160 f.,  1244,  1247. 
Shumer  (see   Sumerians),    Shumer 

and  Akkad,  102,    104,   108,    110, 

175.  223,  293,  778  n.,  1393. 
Shushau,  see  Susa. 
Slmznb  (K),  733,  739. 
Sibraim  (C).  349. 
Sib'u  (K),  see  Seve. 


Sidon  (C),  34,  30.  431,  126,  152, 
243,  248,  I.  app.  3.  675,  6811, 
75:;.  772.  1157.  1213  ».,  1367. 

Sieges  (cf.  Fortresses),  236,  251, 
357,664,  '175.  681,698,  783, 824 ff., 
8311,  II.  app.  14.  1030  (1178;. 
1214  ff.,  12301,  1388 

Sihon  (K),  183. 

Sil-bel  (K),  675. 

Siloam  (Siloah,  brook  and  pool), 
329    cf.  326),  008  (730),  731;;. 

Silver  in  commerce,  I.  app.  3;  cf. 
630. 

Simeon  (T),  186. 

Simirra  (C),  624. 

Sin  (D),  94,  100,  104,  II.  app.  4. 

Sin  (political),  290,  675,  II.  app.  11. 

Sinacherib  (K),  42.  55.  261  «.,  635, 
037.  669ff.,  716.  722  1.  732ff.,  II. 
app.  0-14. 

Sinai  (M),  183,  450. 

Sinaitic  peninsula,  134,  450,  755  ;  cf. 
North  Arabia. 

Sin-iddin  (K),  108  (104). 

Sinjirli  inscriptions,  I.  app.  0,  I. 
app.  10. 

Sin-shar-ishkun    K  .  820. 

Sippar  (C  i,  86 ff.,  04.  293,  739,  7:,-. 
7-:;.  13951 

Slavery,  its  occasions,  4  75.  539  fl, 
584 1  ;  its  effects,  544 ff.,  1278; 
its  morality,  949  :  its  symbolism, 
4H7. 

Slaves  in  Israel,  social  relations, 
405 ff.,  507  ff.,  540.  542,  544.  551  ; 
employments,  507  ff.,  567  i  12'js 
n.)  ;  emancipated.  1218  ;  their  lot 
ameliorated,  542  ff.  ;  their  legal 
protection.  5421;  fugitive,  543, 
545;  in  literature,  510;  their 
unique  position,  542  ff.  ;  Egyp- 
tian, 346,  436,  44n  ;  Babylonian, 
740.  1279ff.,  1326  ;  Tyrian.  547. 

Slave-trade,  15.  264,  106,  539. 

Smintheus    D  .  II.  app.  13. 

Snefru  (K),  134. 

So  (K).  see  Seve. 

••  Social  Evolution,"  014  n. 

Social  changes  in  Israel,  562  ff. t 
569ff.,  578,  991,  1153. 


INDEX  I 


455 


Social  questions  in  Israel,  569  ff .  ; 
their  importance,  574,  578,  607. 

Society,  Hebrew,  its  constitution, 
see  Family,  Household,  Clans, 
Tribes,  Slaves,  Strangers,  Clien- 
tage, and  cf.  Hebrews,  govern- 
ment, religion  and  morals. 

Sociological  literature,  Hebrew, 
598  ff. 

Sodom  (C),  109. 

Solomon  (K),  205 ff.,  519,  524  ff.. 
971,  1357  ;  his  poems,  904,  910  ; 
his  "Acts,"  1358. 

Son  (member  of  guild),  570. 

Sorcery,  858. 

Sparta  (C),  1387. 

Spelling,  876. 

Spirituality,  see  Religion,  personal. 

Stone-pillars,  854. 

Strangers  (sojourners,  guests,  cli- 
ents), their  naturalization,  548 ; 
factors  of  Israel,  550 ff.,  567;  in 
literature,  552  ff. 

Subject  states,  see  Dependencies. 

Suchu  (L),  219. 

Suez  Canal,  1031. 

Sumerians  (Shumer),  80  ff.,  95  f. 

Sun-chariots,  856. 

Sun-worship,  321,  856  (1186),  1191. 

Superstitions,  732,  858,  1183. 

Supnat  (R),  215,  218. 

Surety  in  Israel,  584,  596. 

Suru  (C),  218. 

Susa  (Shushan,  C),  106  f.,  785, 
799. 

Susiana  (L),  106,  120. 

Suzerainty,  see  Dependencies. 

Sybil,  the,  851  n. 

Symbolical  prophetic  actions,  658, 
1158  f„  1172, 1178 ff.,  1197  (1243), 
1255. 

Synagogue,  1348. 

Syria  and  Syrians  (collectively), 
17 1.,  90,  125,  132 f.,  135 ff.,  160 ff., 
201  f.,  204,  230,  250,  257,  291  ; 
Northern  Syrians,  l-'-'i.  L52,  157  ff., 
219,  226,  213,  247,  294,  308, 
311.  316,  624,  680;  Middle  and 
Southern  Syrians,  226,  397,  .ill, 
315,  624. 


Tabal  (Tibarene,  LP),  217,  338, 
628,  773. 

Tabel,  of  Damascus,  326. 

Tab-Rimnion  (K),  211. 

Tabua  (Q),  755. 

Tadmor  (Palmyra,  C),  141. 

Tahpanhes  (C),  1083,  1254 f. 

Talent,  II.  app.  11. 

Tammaritu  (K),  782,  784. 

Tammuz  (D),  1184 ff. 

Tamud  (P),  636. 

Tanis.  see  Zoan. 

Tarshish  (C),  128. 

Tarsus  (Tarzi,  C),  243  re,,  735. 

Tartan  (title),  Lapp.  14,  699. 

Taurus  (M),  71. 

Taxation,  see  Imposts. 

Teispes  (K),  1378. 

Tekoa,  the  woman  of,  398  re. 

Tel-abiib  (S),  1290,  1305. 

Tel-harsha  (S),  1273. 

Tel  Ibrahim  (S),  94. 

Telloh  (S),  91,  95,  1291. 

Tel-melach  (S),  1273. 

Tenia  (P),  334. 

Tema  (C),  1371,  1392. 

Temple  in  Jerusalem,  206,  276  f., 
589,  601,  731,  796,  846  ».,  904, 
968,  1118  m.,  1183  f.,  1233;  of 
Ezekiel,  1344  ;  Babylonian  tem- 
ples, 740 ».,  10601,  1063,  1279, 
1287  f.,  13711 

Teraphim.  413,  506,  1210  f. 

Teumman  (K).  779. 

Teushpa  (K),  758  n. 

Thapsacus  (C).  737  //. 

Thebes  l  No-Ainen,  C),  143 f.,  207, 
210  n.,  345,  704,  767,  770,  831, 
1030. 

Theophanies,  350,  718,  909,  1410. 

Thi  (O).  L50. 

Thothmes(K):  I.  145,340;  III,  146, 
1<;2.  173.  369n. 

Tibarene,  see  Tubal. 

Tidal  (K),  109,  117. 

Tiglathpileser  (K) :  I.  179f.  ;  II, 
216;  III.,  110,  27911,  305  ff., 
326,  33]  ff.,842ff„  I.  app.  8,13.14. 

Tigris  (R),  71  f..  117,  216,  218,  222, 
339,  1291  f.,  1387. 


45G 


INDEX   I 


Til-Barsip  (C),  737. 

Tilshapalachi  (C),  228. 

Timnath  (C),  675. 

Tin  in  commerce,  I.  app.  3. 

Tirhakah  (K),  678,  756,  704  ff.,  II. 
app.  14. 

Tirzah  (C).  212,  267. 

Titles  of  kings.  98,  102. 

Tiyari  (L),  I.  app.  2. 

Tub  (L),  204. 

Togarmah  (LP).  814. 

Tophet  (valley),  718,  855,  1095, 
1110. 

Toruadotos  (Turnat.  R),  218. 

Totemism,  1 183  n. 

Tower  of  Babel,  IOC:1,. 

Trade,  see  especially  Aramaeans, 
Babylonians,  Hebrews,  Phoeni- 
cians, and  Caravan. 

Tribal  conditions  in  Israel,  186,  100, 
200,  200,  363,  372  ff.,  443,  480  ff., 
530. 

Tribalism  (cf.  Nomads),  397  ff.,  458 
7i..  401,  510  (618),  950,  954,  964, 
973,  1420. 

Tribes  (cf.  Clans),  396  ff.,  458,  500. 

Tubal,  see  Tabal. 

Tuklat-Adar  (K)  :  I,  175  ;   II,  216. 

Tunip  (C),  145. 

Turkish  regime  in  Asia,  27  i.,  743, 
1050. 

Turushpa  (C),  311. 

Tyre  (C)  and  Tyrians,  34,  39, 42  ff., 
126,  128,  141,  145.  152,  206,  243, 
248.  264.  302.  310,  338.  677,  680  ff., 
7531,  757,  771  f.,  II.  app.  10, 
1030,  1157,  1208,  1213,  1240  w., 
1365  If. 

Uaite  (Ch),  788. 

Uklnzir  (K),  340. 

Uknu  (Choaspes,  Kercha,  R),  107, 

339,  601. 
LTai  (Eulaeus,  Karun,  R),  107. 
CHuba  (L),  307. 
Ullusunu  (Ch),  II.  app.  3. 
Ululai  (K),  I.  app.  8  ;  see  Shalmane- 

ser  IV. 
Ummanaldash  (K),  784f. 
Ummanigash  (K),  779 f.,  782. 


Umman-Manda  (P  ;  cf.  Scythians), 

1383  f. 
Umman-menanu  (K),  739f. 
Universalism,  prophetic,  553  f.,  1420. 
Ur   (C),   94.    100  ff.,  104,   108,  110, 

1291. 
Ur-Ba'u  (K).  95  ff. 
Ordaman  (K),  767. 
Ur-gur  (K),  101. 
Uriah,  the  Iliitite,  520 n.,  523,  550; 

b.  Shemaiah,  1092. 
Urijah  (priest),  540. 
Urmia  (lake).  217.  248,  256. 
Ur-Nina  (K),  95. 
Urtaku  (K),  779. 
Urumilku  (K).  075. 
Usertesen  III  (K),  346. 
Ushu  (C),  675,  789. 
Usury,  see  Interest. 
Uzziah    (Azariah,    K),    261,   268 f., 

306  ff.,  325,  I.  app.  9,  1358  n. 

Van  (lake).  217.  256;  (C),  see  Tu- 
rushpa; (P).  see  Manual 
Vassalage,  see  Dependencies. 
Venality  in  Israel,  594  f. 
Venus  (planet).  1185. 
Vergil  and  Isaiah,  1406. 
Villages  (un walled),  38. 
Virgo  (constellation),  1185 n. 
Virtues,  their  moral  quality,  958  ff. 

Wady  Brissa.  1213  n. 

Wady  Haifa.  310. 

Walls  and  gates,  their  significance, 
1058  and«.,  1233. 

War,  see  Militarism. 

Warfare:  Hebrew,  512  ff.,  540;  As- 
syrian. 620,  1192,  1230  ff. 

Warka  (Erech,  C),  101. 

Warriors,  see  Army. 

•'Wars  of  Jehovah"  (book),  894, 
900,  913. 

Watercourses,  72,  117,  663.  742. 
1051  ».,  1276,  1200  ff.,  1308. 

Water-wheels.  1302  /'. 

Weapons,  479,  4S4,  514,  516. 

Week,  cf.  Sabbath. 

Well,  song  of  the,  894. 

West-land,  Asiatic,  125  ff. 


INDEX   I 


457 


Witch  of  Endor,  851  n. 

Women:  as  rulers,  334,  423,  755; 
as  prophetesses,  423,  851 ;  in  fam- 
ily relations,  417  ft,  427,  430, 
1199;  as  property-holders,  422; 
emancipated,  421  ff. ,  426;  mor- 
ally and  socially,  271,  322,  596, 
721,  1184,  1189  f.,  1256,  1332. 

Words  and  their  associations,  392  f. 

Writing,  by  marks,  877  ;  cuneiform, 
80  ff . ,  104  f . ,  153  f . ,  873  ff . ;  Hettite, 
159;  alphabetic,  154,  872  ff.  ; 
among  the  Hebrews,  872,  877  ff.  ; 
Aramaeans,  874  f. ;  Phoenicians 
(Canaanites),  872,  875,  877  f.  ; 
earliest  uses,  882. 

Written  discourses,  939. 

Xenophon,  1412  n. 

Yamani  ("Ionian"),  II.  app.  4. 

'•  Yareb,"  I.  app.  10. 

Yatbur  (L),  662. 

Yatna  ("Cyprian"),  II.  app.  4. 

Yatnan  (Cyprus,  etc.),  133,  682. 

Ya'ubi'di  (K),  I.  app.  9,  624. 


Ya'udl  (L),  I.  app.  9. 
Yaiita  (Ch.),  786. 

Zab (R),  Lower,  74, 123, 171 ;  Upper, 

74. 
Zadok  (priest),  1344. 
Zahi  (L),  132. 
Zalzallat  (W),  1395. 
Zarpanit  (D),  123. 
Zebulun  (TL),  272,  479. 
Zechariah  (K),  207. 
"Zechariah,"    ix.-xi.,   304,   315,  I. 

app.  11. 
Zedekiah    (K),    of   Judah,    11481, 

1150 ff.,  1215 ff.,  1247  ;  of  Askalon, 

675,  691  ;  exile,  1169. 
Zelek  of  Amnion,  550. 
Zephaniah  (prophet),  814,  830, 1138  ; 

(priest),  1170,  1215. 
Zerah,  see  Osorkon. 
Zerubbabel  (prince),  1147,  1312. 
Zikkurat  (temple  tower),  1061, 1063. 
Zion  (M),  204. 

Zoan  (Tanis,  C),  137,  656,  766. 
Zobah  (L),  201,  204,  209,  787. 
Zodiac,  856. 


INDEX   II 


ANCIENT   AUTHORITIES   AND   ILLUSTRATIONS 


(Passages  translated  are  marked  with  an  asterisk.) 


A.    BIBLICAL 


GENESIS 

§  885-888 

932 

1291  n. 

105  n. 

120 

1126 

927 

1126 

398  n. 

431,929 

889 

927 

927 

944 

929 

929 

540,  927 

758 

334 

101,  111 «. 

932 

74 

1089  n. 

130  h. 

932 

111,  932 

927 

931 

955 

I.  app.  4 

109,111,  153,  276, 

732  n. 

xiv.  14  447//.,. 520 

xiv.  18  590 


ii. 

10 

ii. 

13 

iii 

.6 

iii 

.  15  f . 

iv 

7 

iv 

12,  14,  15 

iv 

20-22 

iv 

23,  24 

v. 

29 

viii.  21  f. 

ix 

13 

ix 

18  f. 

ix 

25-27 

ix 

26  f. 

X. 

2f. 

X. 

7 

X. 

10 

X. 

11,  12 

X. 

12 

X. 

13 

X. 

15-18 

X. 

26  ff. 

xi 

xi 

.  2f. 

xi 

.  (i 

xi 

.  10  ff. 

xiii.  7 

xiv.        109, ] 

xv.  2ff. 
xv.  6 
xv.  9ff. 
xv.  19-21 
xvi. 
xvi.  1 
xvi   12 
xvii.  19 
xviii.  19 
xviii.  32 
xix.  17,  26 
xx.  Iff. 
xx.  3 
xx.  7 
xx.  13 
xxi.  10,  14 
xxi.  20 
xxi.  21 
xxii. 
xxiii. 
xxiii.  4 
xxiv.  2s  ff. 
xxv.  3 
xxv.  4 
xxv.  6 
xxv.  9  f. 
xxv.  13 
xxv. 27 
xxvi .  34  f . 
xxvii. 
xxvii.  3ff. 
xxviii.  1,  5 
xxviii.  13  IT. 
xxix.  14  f. 
xxx.  11  IT. 
xxxi.  21 


412, 


§412 

932,  962 

1219 

130//. 

957 

437  ii. 

:;i4 

I.  app.  12 

774 n.,  927 

1201 

1395  n. 

955 

418 

928* 

930//. 

412 

337  n . 

430 

412 

160 

549 

405/?.,  419 

334 

630 

412,  594 

460 

334 

337n. 

160,  112 

412,  428 n. 

337 n.,  927 

412 

931 

412 

927 

1.  app.  9 


xxxi.  43 
xxxi.  49f.,55 
xxxi.  .">:! 


§412 

413 

930  n. 


xxxii.  13,  xxxiii.  10     ,Vi4 
931 
447,/. 
130  n. 
419 
I.  app.  4 
961 
418  n. 
396  n. 
152 
238 
927,  929 
447//. 
1332n. 
957 
584 
928* 
1190 
960 
414,  594 
927 

i.;i 

132n. 

428  n. 

514,  563  7i.« 

905 
428  n. 

Ill 


xxxiii.  30 f. 
xxxiv. 
xx  xiv.  2 
xxxiv.  12 
xxxiv.  30 
xxxv.  2ff. 
xxxv.  22 
xxxvi.  31  ff. 
xxxvi.  4:'> 
xxxvii.  25 
xxxviii. 
xxxviii.  1  f. 
xxxviii.  14  ff. 
xxxviii.  15  ff. 
xxxviii.  17  ff. 
xxxviii.  18,  22 
xxxviii.  21 
xxxix.  8 
xliii.  11  ff. 
xliv.  IS  IT. 
xiv.  s 
xlvi.  •".! 
xlviii.  14  ff. 
xlviii.  22 
xlix. 
xlix.  3f. 
1.  I6f. 


EXODUS 
iii.  16  143 

iv.  22  429,  432 

iv.  29  143 


459 


400 


INDEX   II 


v.  14  ff.  §567 

vi.it  440 

xii.  21  44:; 

xii.  4S  552 

xv.  890 

xvi.  4f.  134671. 

xvii.  14  891 

xviii.  30,  455 ff..  sill 

xviii.  21  470  ». 

xviii.  25  f.  455* 

xx.-xxiii.  474 it'..  891 

xx.  22-xxiii.  920-922 

xx.  10  463??.,  474//. 
418,  1330 


xx.  17 
xxi.  1-11 
xxi.  2 
xxi.  6 
xxi.  7ff. 
xxi.  12  ff. 
xxi.  13 
xxi.  16 
xxi.  20 ff. 
xxii.  5ff. 
xxii.  7  f . 
xxii.  16 
xxii.  21  f. 
xxii.  25 
xxii.  26 f. 
xxii.  28 
xxiii.  8 
xxiii.  9ff. 
xxiii.  12 
xxiii.  16 
xxiii.  20-23 
xxv.-xxxi. 
xxxiv.  17-26 
xxxiv.  22 
xxxv. 41 


541,  584  71. 
1217 

488 

427 

966 

465,  474  //. 

547 

475,  487,  542 

475,  488 

1015 

41it 

552,  921 

576 

584,  921 

488  n. 

595* 

475,  552,  570 

1346  n. 

1344  n. 

921 

891 

si '2 

1344  n. 

891 


LEVITICUS 


XV11.-XXV1. 

xix.  2 
xix.  33  f. 
xxv.  ."..">,  47 
xx vi.  30 


1362 

1362». 

552 

549 

321 


xxi.  14-18, 27- 
xxi.  15 
xxii.  8 
xxiii.,  xxiv. 
xxiii.  3 
xxiii.  9 
xxiii.  10 
xxvi.  51 
xxvii.  8 
xxx. 13 
xxxv.  15 
xxxvi.  2ff. 
xxxvi.  6 


-30  §  894.  89!  I 

894* 

938 

s'X, 

938 

299,  400 

906  n. 

II.  app.  13 

427 
419* 
552 
427 
420 


NUMBERS 

i.-x.  891 

ii.9,  HI,  24,  31  II.  app.  13 

iv.  18  396 

xi.  5  440 

xi.  Kiff.  461  n. 

xiii.  33  929 

xxi.  5  4Ki 


DEUTERONOMY 


i.-iv.  40 
i.6,  9 
i.  13,  15 
i.  16 

iii.  9  242 

v.  3 
v.  6-21 
v.  15 
vi.4 
vi.  10 
vii.  9 
x.  18  f. 
xii.  1-28 
xii.  3 
xii.  9 
xii.  29-31 
xiii. 

xiii.  12  ff. 
xiv.  21 
xiv.  28  f. 
xv.  12  ff. 
xvi.  1-17 
xvi.  5 
xvi.9ff. 
xvi.  18 
xvi.  19 
xvi.  21  f. 
xvii.  2-7 
xvii.  5 
xvii.  8ff. 
xviii.  1  If. 
xviii.  10-14 
xviii.  15  ff. 
xix.  12 
xix.  15  if. 
xxi.  1  ff. 
xxi.  15-17 
xxii.  15  ff. 
xxii.  22  11. 
xxiii.  3f. 


I. 


847/1. 

462 

455 

552 

app.  3 

944 

892 

547 

1335 

503 

1335 

552 

860 

854 

1024* 

855 

855  n . 

502 

552 

576 

584  n.,  1217 

862 

1024* 

."47.  552,  576 

455,  461,  ."i)2 

595 

854 

85t; 

34 

461 

863, 1019 

855,  858 

858 

48(5,  510 

502 

486,  850 

428 

486 

1331 

550  n. 


xxiii.  it,  14 
xxiii.  15  f . 
xxiii.  17  f. 

xxiii.  19  ff . 
xxiv.  1 
xxiv.  li 
xxiv.  7 
xxiv.  10  ff. 
xxiv.  19 
xxv.  13,  15 
xxvi.  1  ff. 
xxvi.  5 
xxvi.  10 
xxvi.  12  f. 
xx  vii. -xxx. 
xxvii.  17 
xxviii.  64 ff. 
xxix.  10  f. 
xxix.  14 
xxx.  14 
xxxi.-xxxiv 
xxxi.  12 
xxxii.  6 
xxxii.  9ff. 
xxxiii.  9f. 
xxxiii.  28 


§419 

543 

857,  1190, 

1330 

552,  576,  577 

419 

584  n. 

547 

584 

577 

596 

461,  502,  590 

26,  4:U//. 

1024* 

552,  57ij 

847//. 

583 

lit  ,5 

552 

583 

1023 

847  i). 

552 

432 

434  n. 

loir, 

299 


JOSHUA 


vi.26 
vii.  21 
ix.  7,  17 
x.  12 
xi.  3 
xv.  3 
xv.  41 
xix.  44 
xix.  45 
xx.  4 
xxiv.  19  f. 


498  n. 
1064 

130  n. 
896* 

130//. 
152 
695 
693 
695 
510 
501 


JUDGES 


i.4f. 
i.  14f. 
i.  18 
i.  19 
i.  26 
i.  28  ff. 
i.  34 
iii.  3 
iii.  31 
iv.  4 
iv.  11,  17 


I.  app.  4 

563 

192 

478 

I.  app.  5 

540 

136  n. 

130  n. 

479,917//. 

423 

416,  964 

479 


INDEX   II 


4G1 


v.  8  §  188 

v.  14  87'.)* 

v.  24  416,  964 

vi.  27  ff.  482  n. 

vi.  30  415 

vi.  34  460 

vii.  732  n. 

viii.  18  ff.  972 

viii.  22 f.  51 

viii.  33  f.  482  ».,  552 

ix.  6ff.  534 

ix.  7-15  908 

ix.  27  1246 

ix.  46  33,  482  n. 

ix.  51  ff.  33 

x.  3ff.  191 

x.  12  896* 

xi.  35  908 

xiii.-xvi.  917 

xiv.  2  f .  427 
xiv.  14,  18,  xv.  16 

908,918?;. 

xv.  16  908 
xvii.5ff.  503,863,1211?i. 

xvii.  10  431 

xviii.  7,  28  I.  app.  3 

xviii.  19  431,  504 
xix.-xxi.    193, 482 n.,  965 

xix.  16  501 

xix.  22  965 

xxi.  12  396 

xxi.  19  ff.  1246 

xxi.  21  965 

xxi.  25  503 


RUTH 


i.  16 
ii.  4 
iv.  1  ff. 
iv.  lOff. 


58 
501,508 

477,  4S6 
34 


1  SAMUEL 


ii.  1-10 
ii.  12  If. 
iii.  13 
v.  3f. 
vi.4f. 
vii.  14 
viii.  Iff. 
viii.  9 IT. 
viii.  12 
viii.  19  f- 
ix.  5ff. 
ix.  9 


430 

908 

589,  124s 

414* 

1406  n. 

707 

4!  13 

595 

534 

517 

51 

542 

937  n. 


ix.  21 
x.  4 
x.  15  ff. 
x.  12 
x.  26 
x.  27 
xii.  3ff. 
xiii.  2ff. 
xiii.  8ff. 
xiii.  19 

xiv.  1  ff .    4' 
xiv.  44 
xiv. 
xv. 

xv.  22.  23 
xv.  26  f . 
xvii.  17 
xvii.  18,  xviii. 
xvii.  46,  51 
xviii.  7 
xviii.  17  ff. 
xix.  13 ff.,  xx. 
xx.  6 
xx.  8-10 
xx.  18 
xx.  25  ff. 
xxi.  6,  29 
xxii.  3f. 
xxiv.  13 
xxv.  off. 
xxv.  10 
xxv.  14  ff. 
xxv.  44 
xxvi.  19 
xxvii.  6 
xxx.  14 
xxxi.  10 


§396 

7*73  n. 

570 

908  n. 

57,  501 

594 
595,  976 

517,  687 

57' 

129  n. 

Tin.,  732//. 

415 

152,  517 

975 

908 

1067 

520 

517 

785  n. 

908 

427 

970 

484 

1248 

490?!. 

415 

500 

550  n. 

908?/. 

520 

543//. 

420,  542 

427 

58 

919 

192  n. 

200  n. 


13 


5  ff 


2   SAMUEL 


19-27 

i.  7f. 

i.  13  ff. 

i.  17,  v.  ; 

i.  33 
v.  8 
v.  21 
vii.  10  f. 
viii.  2 
viii.  3 
viii.  6,  14 
viii.  Off. 
ix.  Off. 
xi.  1 
xi.  liff. 
xi.  16 


8!  is 

418  n. 

427 

537 

902  ».*,  908 

908  n. 

299//. 

195 

972 

I.  app.  5 

171 
202,  523 
415,542 

233  n. 

620  n. 

236  n. 


xii.  Iff. 
xii.  26 ff. 
xii.  31 
xiii.  12 
xiv.  7 
xiv.  14 
xv.  2 
xv.  19 
XV;  24 
xv.  34 
xvi.  1  ff . 
xvi.  20  ff. 
xvii.  4 
xvii.  21  f. 
xviii.  1 
xviii.  33 
xix.  43 
xx.  1 
xxi.  2 

xxi.  lift. 

xxii.,  see  Ps 
xxiii.  1-7 
xxiii.  37 
xxiv.  3 
xxiv.  6 

xxiv.  15  ff. 


418  n. 


§903 

57 

972 

971 

465 

398  ?i. 

34 

550 

863 

970 

520 

971 

'J71 

520 

518 

902 

II.  app.  11 

465 

130  n. 

972 

xviii. 

908  n. 

550 

523 

130  n.,  204  n., 

I.  app.  5 

707 


1  KINGS 


12) 


.  41,45 
i.  39  f. 

ii.  16  ff. 

ii.  28 

v.  25 

v.  30  f. 

v.  32  (v 

r.  20 

.ill.  41  f. 

iii.  53 

x.  11 

x.  18 

x.  26 ff. 
x.  22 

x.28    230  n., 
xi.  41 
xii.  1,  20 
xii.  16 
xiv.  23 

XV. 

xv.  12 

xv.  14 
xv.  19 
xv.  22 
xvi.  9 
xvi.  31 


33 
543  n. 

590 

726 

604 

910 

904 

I.  app.  •'> 

553 

907  n* 

272 

141 

523 

52 1 

Lapp.  5,51!i 

1358 

5: '.7 

465 

320 

922//. 

1190 

320 

.V.l  i 

1214//. 

520 

92, 1,  app.  •; 


462 

INDEX   II 

xvi.  34 

§  498  ??. 

xiv.  4 

§  320 

xix.  12 

§  227 

xviii.  25 

732 

xiv.  7 

254 

xix.  13 

349* 

xviii.  40 

KMi7 

xiv.  8-14 

260 

xix.  32  f. 

II.  app.  14 

xix.  3 

930 

xiv.  22 

209 

xix.  35 

II.  app.  13 

xix.  15 

241 

xiv.  25 

262 

xix.  37 

744??.,  740  f.* 

xix.  IS 

983 

xiv.  28 

I.  app.  o 

XX. 

635,  637 

xx. 

231,  23.", 

xv.  1-7 

1358  n. 

xx.  9ff. 

040 

xx.  14  IE. 

531 

xv.  4 

320 

xxi.  5,  0 

799,  855 

xx.  -j.;ff. 

58,520,/. 

xv.  5 

308 

xxi.  7 

1182 

xx.  34 

34,  212,  231  f. 

xv.  10 

267??.* 

xxi.  19,  2:; IT.                  800 

xxi. :;,  7 

981 

XV.    13 

315 

xxii.-xxiii 

3          846-852 

xxi.  10-16 

239,  583 

xv.  1(3 

306 

xxii.  10  f. 

1039* 

xxii.  If. 

231 .  234 

xv.  10  f. 

280,  .'no* 

xxii.  20 

698 

xxii.  43 

320 

I.  app.  8 

xxiii.  4-20 

853-858 

xxii.  4!) 

1100 

xv.  20  f. 

272,  2so.  331* 

xxiii.  4.  7, 

11             846ji. 

xxii.  48 

236 

I.  app.  13 

xxiii.  S  f. 

1019 

xv.  35 

US/,. 

xxiii.  12 

040 

2 

KINGS 

xvi.  2 

635 

xxiii.  14 

3,21 

i. 

978 

xvi.  3f. 

319.  .",20 

xxiii.  15  ff. 

840 

i.  8 

584  n . 

xvi.Sff. 

325,  335 

xxiii.  24 

1211  n. 

i.  9 

518 

xvi.  (i 

1360??. 

xxiii.  29 

827 

ii.  12 

431 

xvi.  7      280 

286,  320,  540 

xxiii.  30 

1039 

iii. 

235 

xvi.  8 

594 

xxiii.  31 

1039??. 

iii.  2 

321 

xvi.  0       007/1.,  II.  app.  7 

xxiii.  33 

1040 

iii.  27 

1233  n. 

xvi.  10 

280,  336 

xxiii.  34 

1039 

iv.  1  ff. 

541,  585 

xvi.  18 

II.  app.  7 

xxiii.  36 

1039??. 

iv.  8ff. 

420 

xvii.  3 

540 

xxiv.  1 

540,  1075,,. 

iv.  23 

1346  n. 

xvii.  4-0 

343*,  362, 

xxiv.  2 

1078 

iv.  42 

577  /,. 

I. 

app.  0,  823  n. 

xxiv.  3f. 

1122,,. 

v.  2 

233 

xvii.  24.  30 

94,  701  n. 

xxiv.  0 

1078 

v.  15 

701 

xvii.  20  ff. 

58,  01 

xxiv.  8 

1039,  1070 

v.  17 

01 

xviii.  13-xix 

.  35     11.  app. 

xxiv.  13  ff. 

1080,1234,,., 

vi.,  vii. 

236 

14 

1275.  1306 

vi.  8,  24 

231 

xviii.  2 

635 

xxiv.  18 

II.  app.  0 

vi.  21-23 

129  n,  233,431, 

xviii.  4 

321,  854 

xxiv.  19 

1155 

012* 

xviii.  8 

051,  700.  792 

XXV.   1 

1214 

vii.  ti 

I.  a  pp.  5 

xviii.  9-11 

$43,  362*  635 

xxv.  2 

II.  app.  0 

\l\.  13 

510 

xviii.  9-13    I 

app.  0.  501  ;,. 

xxv.  3-10 

1230-1233 

viii.  12 

244 

xviii.  13 

635,  686 

xxv.  7 

1197 

viii.  i:;t'f. 

241 

xviii.  14-10 

287,  290, 

xxv.  18  ff. 

1170,  1192,,., 

viii.  22 

1360  n. 

088* 

,  693,  II.  app. 

1235 

ix.  14 

23G?;. 

11*.  14 

xxv.  22 

843 

ix.  24  ff. 

583 

xviii.  17 

ooo.  12:;:;,,. 

xxv.  2:; 

124:;,,. 

x.  15  ff. 

410 

xviii.  20  f. 

696 

xxv.  27  IT. 

1081,  1360, 

x.  26f. 

321 

xviii.  21 

IT.  app.  4 

1369 

x.  32  f. 

23l>,  243 

xviii.  22 

58,  29;:,  7110 

xi.,  xii. 

25  1 

xviii.  2:; 

519 

1  CHRONICL 

xi.  4.  10 

51 S 

xviii.  25 

1036,  1029??. 

xi.  20  ff. 

070 

x xiii .  26-35 

701 

i.  12 

100,,. 

xii.  3 

320 

xviii.  27 

1179,,. 

ii.  55 

410.  1275  „. 

xii.  4ff. 

846 

xviii.  .".2 

74,  353 

iii.  17  f. 

1039  71.,  1081, 

xii.  17  f. 

243  ami  n. 

xviii.  34 

94,  349,680 

1147 

xiii.  4f. 

240*.  252 

xix. 

702-701 

iv.  12 

1275  „. 

xiii.  7 

245*.  510 

xix.  3-37 

741  n. 

v.  0 

280 

xiii.  14 

431 

xix.  Ml. 

078.  693, 

v.  20 

280 

xiii.  21  f. 

251  f. 

II.  app.  it 

xv.  17 

337  n. 

INDEX    II 

463 

xxvi.  18 

§  856 

xxii.  5ff.,  xxiv.  2ff. 

lxviii.  5 

§  432 

xxvii.  25  ff. 

540  n. 

§584,:.:".i 

lxviii.  29 

28li//. 

xxix.  15 

54'.  I 

xxix.  7ff. 

34,600??. 

lxix. 

L363 

xxxi. 

600 

lxxi. 

1363 

xxxi.  11 

592 

lxxii. 

600  n. 

2  CHRONICLES 

xxxi.  13  ff. 

406,  543* 

lxxii.  4,  10  ff 

604* 

i.  16 

230  n. 

xxxii.  7 

560 

lxxii.  10 

286  n. 

viii.  4 

141 

xxxviii.  28 

432  n. 

lxxiii. 

598,  608,  986 

xiv.  4 

321 

xlii.  10 

301 

Ixxiv.  8,  10 

796  n.,  1239 

xvi.  14 

1216  n. 

xlii.  15 

430 

lxxvi. 

731??. 

XX. 

215 

lxxviii.  60 

490 

xxi.  10 

1216  n. 

PSALMS 

Ixxix. 

1239 

xxiv.  23  f. 

243  n. 

i.  5 

601 

lxxx.  8ff. 

434  it. 

xxv.  7 

275  n. 

ii.  Of. 

432 

lxxxi.  6 

434  n. 

xxvi. 

268 f.,  540 ??. 

iv.  7 

991* 

lxxxii.  16 

598 

xxvii.  5 

269  n. 

v.  4ff. 

601 

lxxxiii. 

215 

xxviii.  5  ff., 

18               325 

x.  3 

598 

lxxxiv. 

1363 

xxviii.  20 

280 

xi.  5 

320 

lxxxvi.  9,  Ixxxvii.        554 

xxviii.  23 

640 

xii.  5 

602 

lxxxix.  14 

457 

xxxii.  3-5 

698 

xiv. 

598,  608 

lxxxix.  26  f. 

429,  4;;2 

xxxii.  27 f. 

651 

xiv.  20 

785  n. 

xc.  2 

432 

xxxii.  30 

698??.* 

XV. 

595,  601 

xci.  5f. 

II.  app.  13 

xxxiii.  10 

790* 

xvii. 

598 

xciv.  20 

598 

xxxiii.  11 

798 

xviii.          7 

18,  908  f.,  1410 

xcvii.  2 

457 

xxxiv.  4,  7 

321 

XX. 

1073,  1211  it. 

ci. 

600/?. 

xxxv.  21,  23 

1034* 

xxii. 

1363 

cii.  19  ff. 

554 

xxxv.  24  f. 

1035*,  1237 

xxii.  25 ff. 

554,  601 

ciii.  13 

433 

xxx  vi.  13 

1148 

xxiv.-xxvi. 

595,  601 

ciii.  20  f. 

407 

xxxvi.  17 

1232». 

xxvii.  11 

1054  n. 

cv.  11  ff . 

434n. 

xxviii.  2ff. 

601 

cxix.  19 

549 

EZRA 

xxxi.  19  f. 

601 

cxxvi. 

1263,  136:1 

i.  2ff. 

1416  n. 

xxxv.  15 

896  n. 

cxxxvii. 

1263,  1348s1 

i.  8,  etc. 

1312 

xxxv.  16 

598 

cxxxvii.  7 

1078//., 

ii.  59 f. 

1273 

xxxvi. 

609//. 

124(1//. 

iii.  3 

61 

xxxvii. 

598,601,  609 

cxxxix. 

609??. 

iii.  7 

45,  67 

xxxviii. 

609 

cxli.  6 

598 

iv.  2 

761  ?/.,  799 

xxxix. 

549,  609 

cxlvi.  7 

546 

iv.  g 

101  ?<.,  7'. mi 

xl.  12  ff. 

609 

cxivi.  9 

554 

iv.  12  ff. 

1241 

xli.-xliii. 
xlii.,  xliii. 

601 
607//.,  609, 

cxlvii.  2-4 

1406;?. 

NEHEMIAH 

xliii.  3f. 

1011 
1340* 

PROVERBS 

v.  3ff. 

541,585 

xiv.  12 

286/i.,  594 

iii.  12 

4.",:: 

v.  it 

606 

xlvi. 

733 

vi.  Iff. 

596 

vi.  14 

851  n. 

xlvi.  4 

7."»1  //.* 

vi.  20 

430 

vi.  15 

1185 

xlvi.  9 

746//. 

vi.  35 

:.:ii 

vii.  61  f. 

1273 

xiviii.  3 

1402  n. 

viii.  15 

879//. 

viii.  Iff. 

34 

xlviii.  12  IT. 

1233  n. 

x.  3,  7 

(Mil 

viii.  17 

1273  ii. 

xlix.  (iff. 

598,  601 

xi.  1,  15,  26 

596 

xii.  27,  30 

1233  n. 

1. 

909 

xiii.  22  f. 

cm 

1.  11 

I.  app.  7 

xiv.  1 

420 

JOB 

li. 

718,  1363 

xiv.  21,  31 

001 

i.  15 

334 

Hi. 

598,  601 

\v.  27 

594.  595 

iii.  2ff. 

1112 

Iv.,  lvi. 

.v. is,  601 

xvi.  11 

596 

vi.  19 

334 

1  viii . 

598 

xvii.  8,  23 

594,  595 

iv.  24 

600 

lxiii.  1,5 

609 

xviii.  16 

594,  596 

464 


INDEX   II 


xix.  1,  17,  22 
xx.  10,  23 
xx.  Hi 
xxi.  12,  13 
xxi.  14 
xxi.  27 
xxii.  22f. 
xxii.  26  f. 
xxiii.  10  f. 
xxiv.  15  ff. 
xxv.  14 
xxviii.  8,  27 
xxix.  4 
xxix.  7 
xxix.  18 
xxx.  10  ff. 
xxx.,  xxxi. 
xxx.  10  ff. 
xxxi.  1,  10  ff. 


§601 

596 

584,  5!)6 

601 

594,  595 

601 

34,601 

.V.Hi 

583* 
601 
595 
601 
595 
601 
1260* 
420 
910 
420 
420(910) 


ECCLESIASTES 


v.  8 
vii.  7 


i.  6 


.9 

.  11 

.  13 

.  17 

.  21 
i.  23 

.  29 
1 

i.  1-8 

i.  6 

.  16 

.  18,  20 

i.  2f. 
4,  12 
16  f. 
v.  8ff. 
v.  25 
vi.  9f. 
vii. 
vii.  3 
vii.  14  ff. 
viii.  Iff. 
viii.  0 
viii.  6  f. 
viii.  si. 
viii.  19 
viii.  22 


ii. 


in. 

iii. 
iii. 


592* 
594 

ISAIAH 

309 

213 

236  7i.,  309 

546 

1011 

940 

604* 

33 

595 

321,  860  n. 

318  n. 

318,  321,  553 

643 

67,  269 

321 

321 

317,  420 

321,  59(5 

583,  596 

309 

319,  938 

;;25  ff. 

698 

I.  a  pp.  12 

329,  640 

698//..  995 

730  n.,  1308  n. 

I.  app.  12* 

321 

329 


Tin.  23 

ix.  off. 


I.  app.  12, 
431  n.*,  (i03,  72(5 


ix.  8-x.  4 
ix.  12 
x.  1 

x.  5-xi.  16 
x.  5 
x.  7 
x.  8 
x.  9 
x.  14 
x.  28-32 
x.  33 f. 
xi.  2f. 
xiii.-xix. 
xiii.-xiv 
xiii.  19 
xiv.  4  ff. 
xv.,  xvi., 
xvi.  Iff. 
xvii.  1-11 
xvii.  8 
xviii.-xx. 
xix.  1-13 
xix.  18 
xix.  19,  20 
xix.  24 


23 


325  n. 
325 

595,  879  n. 

722-727 

3,  297,  725 

78 

1312  n. 

llln. 

292 

687 

725*.  730 

720 

324 

1401  f . 

1050 

290,  1402* 

27.' >  >i. 

269 

330,  355 

321 

655-659 

769 

153,  879  f . 

860  n. 

129n. 


xx.       1531,  634,  658  f.,  711 
II.  app.  4 
1404 
1401  n. 
097  f.,  722 
696 
559 
772 
5.54 
1233  n. 
321 


xx.  1 
xxi.  1-10 
xxi.  2 
xxii. 
xxii.  6  f . 
xxii.  15  ff. 
xxiii. 
xxv.  6  ff . 
xxvi.  1 
xxvii.  9 
xxviii. 
xxviii.  1-4 
xxviii.  5-29 

xxviii.  7 
xxviii.  28 
xxix.-xxxii. 
xxix.  10 
xxx.  3-7 

xxx.  7 

xxx.  9  ff . 
xxx.  15  f. 
xxx. 22 
xxx.  27  f . 
xxxi.  1 


XXXI.    I 

xxxii.  Iff. 
xxxiii. 
xxxiii.  7 
xxxiii.  8 
xxxiii.  13-16 
xxxiii.  15 
xxxiii.  18 
xxxiii.  20 
xxxiii.  21  f. 
xxxvi.  12 
xxxvii.  7 
xxx  vii.  18 
xxxvii.  25 
xxxvii.  29 
xxxvii.  30 
xxxvii.  36 
xxxvi  ii. 
xxxviii.  6 


§321 
603 

728-730 

703 

696  n. 

729* 
595,  601 

729* 
405 

730* 
717 
709 
72:  i 
708 
7  IS 
721  a. 

704* 
635 
637 


995 


212,  355.  596 

580,  596, 

642 f.,  046  f. 

1200 

475  n. 

711-721 

720 

286 n.,  700, 

II.  app.  15 

II.  app.  15*. 

1366  n. 

420,  596,  721 

716* 

321 

730 

520 


xxxviii.  10-20  909 

xx  xix.  1  594,  679 

xxxix.  7  798  n. 

xl.-lv.  1405  ff. 

xl.  3-5  1410* 

xl.  20  f.  1338 

xl.  29  f.  1406n. 

xli.  2ff.  1403  n.,  1409, 

1411//. 

xli.  7  Ho:, 

xli.  8f.  1313 

xli.  14  1409 

xli.  17  ff.  14oo„. 

xlii.  6  1411  n. 

xlii.  7  1400/z. 

xlii.  15  72 

xlii.  21  298 

xliii.  3,  7  1313,  1405 

xliii.  14  1405 

xliii.  27  431 

xliv.  If.  1313 

xliv.  5  407*.  553 

xliv.  12-20  1338,1400,/. 

xliv.  28  1411//.* 

xlv.  3  310 

xlv. 4  1409 

xlv.  6  1411 

xlv.  13  1411//. 

xlv.  20  1400 ;;. 

xlv.  22  f.  553 

xlvi.  Iff.  299n.,  1405, 

1406  n. 

xlvi.  11  1403 n.,  Hoo 

xlvii.  2  1405 

xlvii.  12  ff.  858,1211, 
1405 

xlviii.  18  1296  n. 


INDEX   II 


465 


xlix.  5ff. 
xlix.  12 

xlix.  1(3 
xlix.  19 
xlix.  23 
li. 

If. 

3,11 

13  f. 

14 

ii.  3f. 

9 


4-6 

v.  11 f . 
lvi.  6f. 
Iviii.  11  f. 
lix.  19 
lx.  3ff. 
lx.  6 
lx.  7 
lx.  8f. 
lx.  18 
lxii.  4 
lxiii.  16 
lxiv.  8 
lxv.  21 
Ixvi.  3,  17 
lxvi.  12 
lxvi.  18  ff. 


§  1405,  1418 

1418 

1233  n. 

1296  //.,  1418 

1418 

419,  541,  585 

434  n. 

1418 

1406  n. 

1221,  1415* 

1 145 

601 

465 

426 

1233/1. 

553 

1296  n. 

1296  n. 

553 

630  n. 

787  n. 

66 

1058  n. 

418,  426  n. 

432 

432 

1194  n. 

1183  n. 

1296  n. 

553 


JEREMIAH 


i.  6 
i.  15 
ii.  1- 


v.  4 


3 

10  f. 

15  f. 

18 

28 

36 
iii.  1 
iii.  6-18 
iii.  17 
iv.-vi. 
iv.  7 
v.  15,  17 
v.  31 
vi.  13 
vi.  22  f. 
vii.-x. 
vii.  4-11 
vii.  14 
vii.  16  ff. 


1069 

813* 

1086  f . 

1087* 

1086* 

1083* 

1083* 

1087* 

1083,  1087* 

419 

1086  n. 

553 

813,  1091 

1115 

813 

1017  n. 

589 

813 

1093-1099 

1093* 

490 

856,  1068, 

1094* 


vii.  21  ff. 
vii.  29-:;:i 
viii.  1-16 
viii.  2 
viii.  10 
viii.  18-22 
ix.  1 
ix.  22  f . 
ix.  24 
xi.  1-8 
xi.  1-xii.  6 
xi.  2 
xi.21 
xii.  5 
xii.  7-14 
xii.  14 
xiii.  1-7 
xiii.  1-27 
xiii.  15-18 
xiv.-xvii. 
xiv.  8 
xiv.  13 
xv.  1-9 
xv.  10-21 
xv.  19-21 
xvi.  13 
xvi.  19 
xvii.  5-13 
xvii.  14-18 
xviii. 
xix.  1-15 
xx.  2 
xx. 7-13 
xx.  7-18 
xx.  9ff. 
xx.  14-18 
xxi.  1-10 
xxii.  1-9 
xxii.  10,  27 

xxii.  15  ff. 
xxii.  20-30 
xxii.  24 ff. 
xxiii.  1-8 
xxiii.  9ff. 
xxiv.  1  IT. 
xxv.  1,  2 
xxv.  :; 
xxv.  8,  9 
xxv.  9 

xxv.  20 
xxv.  25 
xxv.  26 
xxvi.  (i 
XX vi.  7-21 


§  1068,  10«  14* 

1095* 

1096  f  .* 

856 

589 

1098 

1098* 

1099* 

1114 

1065  n. 

1100  f. 

1341 

1066  n.,  1069 

1109* 

1140 

KITS/;. 

1255  n. 

1143 

1143* 

1124-1127 

1125* 

1125* 

1126* 

1242//. 

1126* 

955 

553 

1127  n. 

1127 

1102-1104 

1110 

1066,  1118n. 

1112* 

1150//. 

1109 

1112 

1215* 

1161 

301,  1082, 

1145 

1069 

1144-1147* 

1079,  1081 

1161*,  1263 

1162 

1166,  127.". 

11151 

813 

1115' 

1054,  L091, 

1115  n. 

1032  n. 

1163 

1403  //. 

4'.  hi 

1002 


xxvi.  10 
xxvi.  18 

xxvi.  22  f. 
xxvii.  3f. 
xx  vii.  5-22 
xxvii.  16 
xxviii.  1  ff. 


xxviii.  11,  13 
xxix. 
xxix.  2 
xxix.  5,  28 
xxix.  21  ff. 
xxix.  26 
xxx.-xxxiii. 
xxxi.  9 
xxxi.  15 
xxxi.  20 
xxxi.  29 f. 
xxxi.  30  ff. 
xxxi.  32 
xxxi.  :!4 
xxxii.  3-5 
xxxii.  6-44 
xxxii.  7  ff. 
xxxii.  9-14 
xxxii.  24 
xxxiv. 
xxxiv.  13  f. 


§  1118n. 
644,  II.  app.  8, 

90S 

1121  n. 

1154,  11561. 
1157 
1157* 
1106,  1155  f., 
1158  f.* 
1150//.* 
1167-1170 
1275 


1194//. 

1268 

1066 

117:;//. 

429 

1242 

432 

1204 

1341* 

426 

554  //. 

1221//. 

1225  f.,  1321 

1000 

1225  n. 
1230 

1216-1219 
584//.,  1219 


xxxv.         416,465,11411. 
xxxv.  19  1275  //. 

xxxvi.  Iff.  829n. 

xxxvi.  4  1082 n.,  1116 f. 
xxxvi.  9f.  940,  I082n.*, 
1118  f. 
xxxvi.  11-24  843,  1119  f. 
xxxvi.  32  1082 

xxxvii.  1220-1224 

xxxvii.  5      1034n.,  1218* 
xxxvii.  7  1222 

xxxvii.  14  f.  1221 

xxxvii.  l.">  IT.  559 

xxxvii.  21  34,851//. 

xxxviii.  1227-1229 

xxxviii.  4  1210 

xxxviii.  5  1151,  1221 

xxxviii.  19  1221  n. 

xxxviii.  20  1216n. 

xxxviii.  25  559 

xxxix.  2-8  1230-1233 

xx  xix.  3  1232  7i., 

1233?/.*,  1370 
xxxix.  11-14  1212//. 

xl.  1212-1216 

xl.  11  12J3 


2  ii 


46G 

INDEX    II 

xli. 

§  1246-1249 

vii.  27 

§1312n. 

xxvii.  13,  17 

§45 

xli.  9 

1247n.* 

viii.  1-4 

1170 

xxvii.  18 

lii:;  „. 

xiii. 

1252  f. 

viii.  1     1176ft.,  lis".  1311 

xx  viii.  :; 

1201ft. 

xliii. 

1254  f . 

viii.  3 

1118;/. 

xxviii.  20-24 

1213/,.* 

xliii.  lo  ff. 

1366 

viii.  3-14 

1182-1190 

xxviii.  26 

1194//. 

xliv. 

1256  f. 

viii.  10 

1183 «.* 

xxix. -xxxii. 

L366 

xliv.  1 

1254 

viii.  15  f. 

1191 

xxix.  17  ff.          1345,  1366 

xliv.  17  ff. 

850.  1256 

viii.  17 

1191  ft.* 

xxx.  14  ff. 

770//. 

xlv. 

1212 

ix. 

1191  1'. 

xxxi.  :;if. 

833* 

xlvi.  2 

827,  104:;.  1084 

ix.  2ff. 

1272 

xxxii.  17-32 

1366n. 

xlvi.  3-12 

1088  f. 

X. 

1193 

xxxii.  24  f. 

1163 

xlvi.  9 

1089  n. 

xi. 

1194-1196 

xxxiii. 

1342 

xlvi.  13  if. 

1366 

xi.  16,  18  f. 

1195* 

xxxiii.  2ff. 

1337 

xlvi.  17 

1366  ft.* 

xii. 

11971'. 

xxxiii.  15 

584 

xlvi.  23 

77()//. 

xii.  10 

1312ra. 

xxxiii.  24 

124:; 

xlvii.ff. 

324 

xiii.-xvi. 

1198-1202 

xxxiii.  20 

1330 

xlvii.  1 

1034  n.,  1222 

xiii.  10  ff. 

1154 

xxxiii.  30  f. 

1336  ft. 

xlvii.  4 

166  ft. 

xiii.  17  ff. 

851  n. 

xxxv.  off. 

1240//. 

xlviii. 

273  n. 

xiv.  1 

1170//.,  1311 

xxx  vii.  27 

399 

xlviii.  11 

1156  n. 

xvi.  3 

100*,  434//. 

xxxviii. 

814 

xlix.  1  if. 

273//.,  274. 

xvi.  53 

301 

xl.-xlviii.      1178 

/.,  1344, 

1213 

xvii. 

1209 

1362 

xlix.  19 

1109ra. 

xvii.  13  f. 

1152,  1150* 

xlv.  7ff. 

1312  ft. 

xlix.  34  ff. 

1163 

xvii.  16,  19 

1209,,. 

xiv.  18  f. 

1344 

1.  1-li.  58 

1403 

xvii.  lsff. 

1148 

xlv.  22  ff. 

1346  ft. 

1.  21 

339,  1403?i. 

xvii.  20 

1197 

xlvi.  2ff. 

1312/,. 

1.  23 

loss 

xviii. 

1204 

xlvii.  1-12 

1294  ,/. 

li.  1 

14o:;,/. 

xviii.  6 

1344 

xlvii.  10 

349 

li.  41 

140:;//. 

xviii.  7,  12, 

10               584 

li.  44 

li.  59 ff. 

1109  ft. 
1171  f. 

xix.  4 
xix.  5-9 

718,  1039 

114:; 

DANIEL 

lii.  5-14,  1' 

"-24    1230-1233 

xix.  0 

1039 

i.  1 

1075,/. 

lii.  28-30 

12:34.  1250 

xix.  10  ff. 

1209 

ii.  1.  48 

1201  //. 

xx.  1-44 

1200 

iii.  10  if. 

1100//. 

LAMENTATIONS 

XX.  1 

xx.  12 

1170//..  1311 
1344 

viii.  2,  10 
x.  5 

km; 

1192 

i.  4  etc. 

1238 

xx.  49 

1330//. 

ii.  9 

1259 

x.xi. 

1210 

HOSE  A 

ii.  18 

896  n. 

xx i.  3 

1039 

i.  4 

240.  312 

ii.  20 

1230 

xxi.  21  f. 

12lo* 

i.  7 

320 

iv.  10 

1230 

xxii. 

1212 

i.  11 

315 

iv.  22 

1240//. 

xxii.  12  f. 

.v.!.", 

ii.  2ff. 

420 

v.  7 

1205 

xxii.  26 

1017//. 

ii.  11         940.  994 

1346  ft. 

xxii.  30 

1154 

ii.  10 

4  is 

EZEKTEL 

xxiii. 

1212 

iii.  2 

427 

i.  2 

1174 

xxiii.  14 

lis.;,,. 

iii.4f.              312 

1211  //. 

i .  4-28 

1170 

xxiii.  23 

339 

iv.-xiv. 

312 

i.  4 

1402  ft. 

xxiii.  38 

1344 

iv.4f. 

5S9 

ii.  17  ff. 

1337 

xxiv.  1  f. 

1214 

iv.  i:l  If. 

1190 

iii.  7ff. 

117U 

XXV.  ff. 

324 

iv.  15 

320 

iii.  15 

1296*,  1336n. 

XXV.   1  ff. 

1213 

iv.  10  f. 

275  // . 

iii.  22-27 

1176  ft.,  1178  ft. 

xxv.  10 

192,/. 

v.  1  if. 

1017 

iv.-vii. 

1178-1180 

xxvi.-xxviii.                1367 

v.  1 

1244 

iv.  4tf. 

1179*.  1344 

x.xvi.  Iff. 

1240,,. 

v.  3 

275/,. 

V.  11 

1344 

xxvii. 

I.  a  pp.  •"> 

v.  9 

275  n. 

vi.  4,  6 

32] 

xx  vii.  7 

00 

v.  10 

320 

INDEX    II 

4G7 

V.    11 

§314 

vi.  5 

§909 

iii.  8-10 

§770 

v.  13 

314* 

vi.  (i 

275  /).,  596 

iii.  lOf. 

78 

v.  18 

941 

vi.  7 

302 

iii.  18 

7:;i  //. 

vi.  4 

320 

vi.  14 

262n.,  302,  1137< 

vi.  •; 

vi.  10 

1011 
275  n. 

vii.  7  ff 

vii.  10 

(i4ti 

940 

HABAKKUK 

vi.  11 

320 

vii.  14 

57(1 

i.  2-ii.  4 

1130-1132* 

vii.  .'! 

538,  587 

vii.  15 

938 

i.  0 

1137  n. 

vii.  8flF. 

313  f. 

vii.  Hi 

940//. 

ii.  5 

1135* 

vii.  12 

1197 

vii.  17 

302  f. 

ii.  6-20 

11. -.5 

viii.  8-10 

314* 

viii.  5 

596,  1346  n. 

iii.        718 

909,  1136,  1410 

viii.  14 

320 

viii.  (i 

541.  596 

ix.  3  f. 
ix.  ii 

303,  314* 
313 

viii.  14 
ix.  4 

930 
302 

ZEPHANIAH 

ix.  13,  17 

314 

ix.  7 

.".,  166 n.,  297 

i.,  ii. 

830 

x.5f. 

299  n.  *,  355 

ii. 

324,  si  4 

x.  14  f. 
xi.'l 

314* 

1*  15,  432 

3BADIAH 

ii.  5 
ii.  8ff. 

192//. 

27:'.//. 

xi.  8 

275  a . 

10  ff. 

1078  «.,  1240  n. 

ii.  13-15 

830* 

xi.  10 

'..  app.  11 

iii.  4 

589,  1017/.. 

xi.  12 
xii.  1 
xii.  2 

320 

31:? 
320 

i. 

MICAH 

718,  140.'! 

ZECHARIAH 

xii.  7 

596 

i.-iii. 

II.  app.  8 

ii.  11 

5.-,:; 

xiii.  1 

275  // . 

i.  :$f. 

356*,  909 

viii.  20  ff. 

55:; 

xiii.  10  f. 

314* 

i.  5,  9,  13                      319 

ix.-xi. 

324 

xiii.  15  f 

355 

i.  10-16 

645 

ix.  1  ff. 

258;/..  315 

i.  14  If. 

798  ii. 

ix.  6 

II.  app.  4 

JOEL 

ii.,  iii. 

798//. 

ix.  13    I. a 

pp.11, 11.  app.  4 

iii.  6 

[I.  app.  4 

ii.  1  ff. 

583,  044 

x.  6 

315 

ii.  9 

585 

x.  11 

760 

i.  f. 

AMOS 

324 

iii.  2f. 

iii.  5 

G44 
5!  i5 

xi.  1-17 
xi.  •"> 

315 

1100//. 

i.  1 

II.  app.  ii 

iii.t>-ll 

321,  589,  oil. 

xii.  11 

I.  app.  5 

i.  3ff. 

:u 

254 

,  264,  274 

1017 

xiii.  11 

1-ill  //. 

i.  6-8 

689 

iii.  12 

II.  app.  8.  1236 

xiv.  5 

2(  15 

i.  9 

1213  n. 

iv.  1  ff. 

553,  604 

ii.  4 
ii.  (if. 

320 
541,  1190 

v.  3-45 

v.  12  f. 

I.  app.  12,  603 
321,  >\i\ 

MALACHI 

ii.8 

584, 

596,  1017 

vi.  5 

895 

i.  ii 

326,  133* 

iii.  2 

774  n. 

vi.  6-8 

1006 

ii.iif. 

loir. 

iii.  9ff. 

'.  155 

vi.  7 

855 

ii.  10 

4:;2  and  //. 

iv.  1 

596 

vi.  S 

G01,  141:i 

iv.  2f. 
iv.  (iff. 

302.  355 
264,  511 

vi.  9ff. 

vi.  10  f. 

798  n. 
596 

2  MACCABEES 

iv.  10  ff. 

34 

,264 

,265,596, 

7(17 

vi.  Hi 
vii.  2 

319 
601 

ii.  1  ff. 

1244 

v. :; 
v.  5 

264,  518 
930 

vii.  3 
\ii.  8 

595*.  120(1 
1078  n. 

MATTHEW 

v.  8,  18, 

20 

265 

i.  12  11'. 

1117 

v.  11  f. 

v.  15 

541 

,  5'.  c>.  596 

275  „ . 

NAHUM 

iii.  4 
v.  8 

584  u. 
1009 

v.  16  f. 

355 

i.-iii. 

831-833 

v.  :;i 

410 

v.  21  ff. 

Kill 

ii.  3-5 

832  n. 

\i.  :i 

4:;:; 

v.  27 

302 

ii.  ii 

S27//.* 

vii.  12 

619 

vi.  2ff. 

Uln.,  355 

ii.  11  f. 

7s,  833*,  1032 

vii.  15 

68 1  n . 

408 


INDEX    II 


viii.  28 
xi.  8 

§130n. 
384/1, 

ROMANS 

HEBREWS 

xvi.  18 

l  •_';;:; ,,. 

vii.   1  f. 

§419 

ii.  luff. 

§429 

xxv.  44 

HI."./,. 

viii.  29 

429 

x.  38 
xi.  1 

1133  n. 
1133  n. 

MARK 

2   CORINTHIANS 

xi.  32 
xi.  37 

929  n. 

805  n . 

vii.  13 

in'.'?//. 

v.  1 

465 

xii.  23 

429 

LUKE 

GALATIANS 

1 

PETER 

vii.  9 

1008  n. 

iv.  1                          428  n* 

iii.  6 

418 

vii.  25 
xii.  13  f. 
XV.  11  ff. 

584  n. 

486  n. 
433 

vi.  10 
vi.  14 

407 
1099 

2 
i.  13  f. 

PETER 

-tir. 

xviii.  2ff. 

590 

EPHESIANS 
ii.  19 
iii.  15 

407 

399* 

1 
iii.  3 

JOHN 

1(109 

JOHN 

ix.  7 

1308)1. 

v.  22 ff. 

426 

REVELATION 
v.  2                                    713 

xi.  39 

785  « . 

vii.  3 

1192 

xiv.  6 

1008  n. 

PHILIPPIANS 

xvi.  lti 

145 

i.  1 

407 

xx.  7  ff. 

814 

ACTS 
ix.  11 

34  n. 

COLOSSIANS 

xxi.  3 
xxi.  12  ff. 

399 
1233  n. 

xii.  20 

45 

i.  15,  18 

429 

xxii.  3f. 

407* 

B.    INSCRIPTIONAL 


Amarna  tablets 

IV,  5 

Br.  M.: 

IV,  16,  23  ff. 

2 

§149 

IV,  2 

8,9 

154,  162 

IV,  29 

28,30 

154  /,. 

64 

152 

C».: 

AN: 

258  n.,  293  n.,  311, 

(IR,  17-26) 

217  ff. 

CIS: 

1,4 

57* 

ILL  pi.  1-14, 15  ff 

I,  25 

57 

7:;  ff. 

III.  17  ff. 

219  n. 

Ill,  23  f. 

223 

Deluge  Story  : 
line  1G8 

BA: 

II,  257  (Cyrus) 

1393  n* 

"  (4udea" : 

U,258ff.(Merodach- 

B.  VI,  64 

baladan) 

665  //. 

Bab.  Chr. : 

K: 

I,  23-28 

342 

2801 

II.  39 ff. 

7:i9 

3082,  3086 

Ill,  18  ff. 

7.".9,i. 

4378,  col.  v,  vi 

111,28 

740/,. 

4668 

III,  34  ff. 

744,  746* 

III.  39  ff . 

751 

Lay. : 

IV,  9,17  f. 

752 

17,  4-7 

IV,  3,  6 

753 

29                  331  f. 

§755* 
756 

.  759 
761* 


,341,1. 


875 ,1. 


r48n. 


'.is 


172 
756 

7: ''7  ,/. 
758 


293 

334  f . 


46,  1-9 

§229 

63,  13 

673 

66-68      311 

331  f.,  :;:i4. 

I.  app.  13 

72  f .              331 

98,  2 

242* 

Mesha  stone : 

lines  9  ff. 

235,  274 

Mon.  (IIIR,  7 

f.): 

29-75 

227 

78  ff. 

228* 

Nab.  Annals 

II,  HI 

1392  n. 

II,  Iff. 

L382 

II,  15-18 

1387  ».*, 

1388  n. 

HI,  12-18 

1395* 

III.  19f., 

1397* 

Ill,  21  f. 

1398  n. 

Ill,  22  f. 

1396  n. 

Ill,  24  ff. 

1397  n. 

Neb. : 

I,  55  ff. 

1054* 

11,  12  ff . 

1053 

INDEX    II 


400 


VIII,  20-44 
VIII,  64  f. 


§  1062* 
1062  n* 


Obel.  (Lay,  87 ff.)  : 
26-49  227 

54-66  229 

83  ff.  237 

96  ff.  242 

138  243  n. 


PCT  (OBT)  : 

I 

pi.  2  02 

pi.  4.  02 

pi.  9-13  104 

pi.  32.    1051  n.,  1054* 

IX: 
nr.48    1308  n.,  1324  n. 
nr.49  1324  n. 


I  R: 

2,  nr.  Ill,  IV       104,108 

3,  nr.  VII  91 
5                                   104 

7,  VIII,  1       H.app.12* 

8,  nr.  3  820  n. 
28  180 
29-31  247 
20,  30-53  247 
35,  nrs.  1-4  248  ff. 
35,  nr.  4,  21  ff.           172 

38,  34-30,  41       675  ff* 

39,  42  ff.  733 

39,  50-01  7:34* 

40,  26  07 

41,  Iff.  1102 

41,  21  ff.  739  n. 
41.47-42,23  739 

42,  33  ff.  742 

43,  sr.  743  n.* 
4:;,  23  ff.  07 

44,  55  ff.  742 

45,  1,10  ff.  753. 

45,  II.  6  758 n.*,  759n. 
45, 11,32  ff.  751 

46,  III,  25  755* 

46,  IV,  8ff.  760 

47,  V,  11  761 
40,  col.  i.,  ii.  740,  748* 
40,  col.  iii.,  iv.  740': 
07,  col.  i.  14  1370//.* 
00,11,20;  111,27  04  //. 
00.11,  IS;  111,28    95  n. 


II  R: 

16,32  §1346n.* 

45,11,20  1403  n. 

50,  20  f.  1058  n. 

50,  28  f.  1285  n. 

53.30.57.50  250 

•  17,5,42  203,  340,  :ill 
52-55  i ;;  14 

60  314/;. 

07. 57-66  336-338 

III  K: 

3,  11  r.  0  178  //. 

4,  nr.  2  175 

4,  nr.  7  .so 

5,  nr.  6  242* 
0,  nr.  2                   307??, 

0,  30  ff .  (nr.  3)  307. 

311* 
10,  nr.  2,  1.  0-15  331  f., 
I.  app.  13* 
10,  30-38  334 
12  f.  II.  app.  9,  97, 738 
12,  18.  21  ff .  082,  001  f. 
14.  0  ff.  742 

14,  43  ff.       740  n. 

14,  48  ff.         ISO 

15,  I,  2  ff.  740* 
15,  II,  1  ff.        751 

15,  IV,  1  ff.       700 

16,  V,  13  ff.  701 
16,  nr.  2  820  n. 
30.  31,  col.  iii.,  iv.  777 
3.1-33,  col.  iv.-vi.  770  f. 
34,  col.  vii.  786 
40  875  n. 
40,  col.  i.,  ii.     748* 

IV  R: 

7, 1, 17  ff.        112 

31  1185)?. 

32  1340 n* 

33  1185  n. 

34  90,02,03//. 
361,  nr.  21  [13 
361,  nr.  45  118  n. 
30(44  f.)                       175 

VR: 
1,2  756,  764  0. 

1,8  IT.  763 

1,  31  ff.  816 
l,45ff.  763 
1,52  755,/. 
2,7                            706//. 

2,  41  ff.  767//. 
2,  58  771* 
2, 63-94  773. 
2,  05-125                     774* 


2,  126-326  §777 

3,  27  ff.  770 
3,  06  ff.  780 

3,  I28ff.  -4,41  782 

4,  97  ff.  781  n. 

5,  34  f.  784 
5,  36-7,  81  785 
6,l()7ff.     88,107,785?*. 

7,  82-10, 5  786-789 

8,  27  ff.,  0,  42  ff., 

9,  103  ff.,   9, 

115  ff.  788  n. 

25,  1-7  1331  n. 

25,  7  ff.  1332  //. 

29,  nr.  1,  0  1185 

33  123 

35,0  1398  n. 

35.7-15  1393* 

35,  10-10  1305* 

35,  20-22  1378  n. 

35,27.35  1307//. 

35.  31  f.  94,  1300* 

35,  32  f.  1398 

55-57  17S 

62,5ff.  778ti. 

04,  I,  18-33  1383* 

04,  I,  32  xi:,n. 

04,1,41  125??. 

64,  II,  50  ff.  87 

66,11,7  117//. 


S: 
2005  758 

2027  756 

Sargon : 
Annals : 
1.  55-57,  70,  77 

II.  app.  3 
1.  94-00  630" 

1.  207  f.  630 

1.215-228     II.  app.  4* 
1.  235  f.         II.  app.  6 
Cyl.: 
20  630 

64  737  a . 

ST: 
pi.  1,1.10  0. 

Lapp.  16* 
pi.  30  f.,  1.  23-25 

I.  app.  16* 
pi.  33f.  II.  app.  4* 
pi.  38,  1.3.1  f. 

[.app.  16 

pi.  44f.  63.1. 

II.  app.  4* 


470 

INDEX 

II 

pi.  4-.  1.  8 

VII: 

p.  148-152  (II   R, 

II. 

n  i >j>.  5* 

43  f. 

§178n. 

66,  III  K.  4j    §175 

TP: 

60-70 

172 

(IT!.  1-16) 

§  170 

TSBA : 

1 .  62  ff. 

170  n. 

V.  422 

91 

ZA: 

VI  : 

II,  69  ff.                1051  n. 

39-48 

179* 

GAG: 

IV,  400                          02 

58-84 

180  n. 

p.  145-147 

113 

C. 

JOSEPHUS 

Ant. : 

X,  11 

2 

1369  n. 

I.  20 

1059  n. 

1369  n 

VIII.  5,  3 

42  n. 

XI,  2 

1410;,. 

I,  21 

1365  n 

IX,  4,  3 

681 

Apion  : 

IX.  14.  2 

42;/. 

I,  14 

136 

X.  6,  1 

10 

f5«.* 

I,  19 

1056  n 

.,  1057* 

/>.    GREEK   AND   ROMAN 


Herodotus: 

I.  195                       §1064 

Iliad: 

I.  15.  104 

§758 

1,199                    1332?*. 

i.  :!7                II.  app.  13 

I.  87 

1388  n. 

11.141                        705* 

xii.  299ff.,  xviii. 

F.  105 

812 

II,  157                812.  1032 

1011.                 §710 

I,  107-124 

1384  n. 

I!.  158.  159               1031 

Odyssey,  xi.  14        758  //. 

I.  12.",.  127 

1385 

11. 101.  It;:;.  li;o    1365n. 

/Eneid,  i.  628  ff.           547 

I,  178  ff. 

1056  «., 

IV.  11.  12                    758 

Ovid,  .!/<-/.  i.  85      100971. 

1058  ff. 

IV.  42                        1031 

Diodorus,  II.  20       827  n. 

1,180          .°>4n. 

.  1059n. 

Ml.  11                  1378n. 

Pliny, Hist.  X-<t. 

I.  181       1062%. 

.  I063n. 

Xenophon,    Anub. 

V,  11,  05                 787//. 

I.  183 

1332  n. 

111.  4,  9                  827//. 

Lucian,  Charon,  ch.  23 

I.  104 

1305  n. 

827  n. 

13 


>ATE  Dt 


3  1205  03366  2062 


